William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (bapt. 26 April 1564; d. 23 April 1616) was an English poet, playwright, and actor; he is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's greatest dramatist.

Sonnets

 * 1) "From fairest creatures"
 * 2) "When forty winters"
 * 3) "Look in thy glass"
 * 4) "Unthrifty loveliness"
 * 5) "Those hours"
 * 6) "Then let not winter's ragged hand deface"
 * 7) "Lo! in the orient"
 * 8) "Music to hear"
 * 9) "Is it for fear"
 * 10) "For shame deny"
 * 11) "As fast as thou shalt wane"
 * 12) "When I do count the clock"
 * 13) "O! that you were your self"
 * 14) "Not from the stars"
 * 15) "When I consider every thing that grows"
 * 16) "But wherefore do not you"
 * 17) "Who will believe my verse"
 * 18) "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"
 * 19) "Devouring Time"
 * 20) "A woman's face"
 * 21) "So is it not with me"
 * 22) "My glass shall not persuade me"
 * 23) "As an unperfect actor"
 * 24) "Mine eye hath play'd the painter"
 * 25) Let those who are in favour with their stars
 * 26) Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage
 * 27) Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed
 * 28) How can I then return in happy plight
 * 29) When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes
 * 30) When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
 * 31) Thy bosom is endeared with all hearts
 * 32) If thou survive my well-contented day
 * 33) Full many a glorious morning have I seen
 * 34) Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day
 * 35) No more be grieved at that which thou hast done
 * 36) Let me confess that we two must be twain
 * 37) As a decrepit father takes delight
 * 38) How can my muse want subject to invent
 * 39) O! how thy worth with manners may I sing
 * 40) Take all my loves, my love, yea take them all
 * 41) Those pretty wrongs that liberty commits
 * 42) That thou hast her it is not all my grief
 * 43) When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see
 * 44) If the dull substance of my flesh were thought
 * 45) The other two, slight air, and purging fire
 * 46) Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war
 * 47) Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took
 * 48) How careful was I when I took my way
 * 49) Against that time, if ever that time come
 * 50) How heavy do I journey on the way
 * 51) Thus can my love excuse the slow offence
 * 52) So am I as the rich, whose blessed key
 * 53) What is your substance, whereof are you made
 * 54) O! how much more doth beauty beauteous seem
 * 55) Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
 * 56) Sweet love, renew thy force; be it not said
 * 57) Being your slave what should I do but tend
 * 58) That god forbid, that made me first your slave
 * 59) If there be nothing new, but that which is
 * 60) Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore
 * 61) Is it thy will, thy image should keep open
 * 62) Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye
 * 63) Against my love shall be as I am now
 * 64) When I have seen by Time's fell hand defac'd
 * 65) Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea
 * 66) Tired with all these, for restful death I cry
 * 67) Ah! wherefore with infection should he live
 * 68) Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn
 * 69) Those parts of thee that the world's eye doth view
 * 70) That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect
 * 71) No longer mourn for me when I am dead
 * 72) O! lest the world should task you to recite
 * 73) That time of year thou mayst in me behold
 * 74) But be contented when that fell arrest
 * 75) So are you to my thoughts as food to life
 * 76) Why is my verse so barren of new pride
 * 77) Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear
 * 78) So oft have I invoked thee for my Muse
 * 79) Whilst I alone did call upon thy aid
 * 80) O! how I faint when I of you do write
 * 81) Or I shall live your epitaph to make
 * 82) I grant thou wert not married to my Muse
 * 83) I never saw that you did painting need
 * 84) Who is it that says most, which can say more
 * 85) My tongue-tied Muse in manners holds her still
 * 86) Was it the proud full sail of his great verse
 * 87) Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing
 * 88) When thou shalt be dispos'd to set me light
 * 89) Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault
 * 90) Then hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now
 * 91) Some glory in their birth, some in their skill
 * 92) But do thy worst to steal thyself away
 * 93) So shall I live, supposing thou art true
 * 94) They that have power to hurt, and will do none
 * 95) How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame
 * 96) Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness
 * 97) How like a winter hath my absence been
 * 98) From you have I been absent in the spring
 * 99) The forward violet thus did I chide
 * 100) Where art thou Muse that thou forget'st so long
 * 101) O truant Muse what shall be thy amends
 * 102) My love is strengthened, though more weak in seeming
 * 103) Alack! what poverty my Muse brings forth
 * 104) To me, fair friend, you never can be old
 * 105) Let not my love be called idolatry
 * 106) When in the chronicle of wasted time
 * 107) Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul
 * 108) What's in the brain, that ink may character
 * 109) O! never say that I was false of heart
 * 110) Alas! 'tis true, I have gone here and there
 * 111) O! for my sake do you with Fortune chide
 * 112) Your love and pity doth the impression fill
 * 113) Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind
 * 114) Or whether doth my mind, being crowned with you
 * 115) Those lines that I before have writ do lie
 * 116) Let me not to the marriage of true minds
 * 117) Accuse me thus: that I have scanted all
 * 118) Like as, to make our appetite more keen
 * 119) What potions have I drunk of Siren tears
 * 120) That you were once unkind befriends me now
 * 121) 'Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed
 * 122) Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain
 * No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change
 * 1) If my dear love were but the child of state
 * 2) Were't aught to me I bore the canopy
 * 3) O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power
 * 4) In the old age black was not counted fair
 * 5) How oft when thou, my music, music play'st
 * 6) The expense of spirit in a waste of shame
 * 7) My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun
 * 8) Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art
 * 9) Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me
 * 10) Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan
 * 11) So now I have confessed that he is thine
 * 12) Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy Will
 * 13) If thy soul check thee that I come so near
 * 14) Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes
 * 15) When my love swears that she is made of truth
 * 16) O! call not me to justify the wrong
 * 17) Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press
 * 18) In faith I do not love thee with mine eyes
 * 19) Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate
 * Lo, as a careful housewife runs to catch
 * 1) Two loves I have of comfort and despair
 * 2) Those lips that Love's own hand did make
 * 3) Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth
 * 4) My love is as a fever longing still
 * 5) O me! what eyes hath Love put in my head
 * 6) Canst thou, O cruel! say I love thee not
 * 7) O! from what power hast thou this powerful might
 * 8) Love is too young to know what conscience is
 * 9) In loving thee thou know'st I am forsworn
 * 10) Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep
 * 11) The little Love-god lying once asleep

"Hidden" sonnets

 * "Two households"
 * "If I profane" & "Thus from my lips"
 * "Now old desire"