The Sonnets – With Audio Reading – Complete list

«From fairest creatures we desire increase, That thereby beauty’s rose might never die».  Shakespeare begins his sonnets by introducing four of his most important themes — immortality, time, procreation, and selfishness — which are interrelated in this first sonnet both thematically and through the use…

«When forty winters shall beseige thy brow, And dig deep trenches in thy beauty’s field,».  Sonnet 2 continues the argument and plea from Sonnet 1, this time through the imagery of military, winter, and commerce. Time again is the great enemy, besieging the youth’s brow,…

«Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest Now is the time that face should form another».  Drawing on farming imagery, the poet focuses entirely on the young man’s future, with both positive and negative outcomes. However, the starting point for these possible…

«Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend Upon thyself thy beauty’s legacy?».  The themes of narcissism and usury (meant here as a form of use) are most developed in this sonnet, with its references to wills and testaments. The terms “unthrifty,” “legacy,” “bequest,” and “free” (which…

«Those hours, that with gentle work did frame The lovely gaze where every eye doth dwell».  Sonnet 5 compares nature’s four seasons with the stages of the young man’s life. Although the seasons are cyclical, his life is linear, and hours become tyrants that oppress…

«Then let not winter’s ragged hand deface In thee thy summer, ere thou be distill’d».  Sonnet 6 continues the winter imagery from the previous sonnet and furthers the procreation theme. Winter, symbolizing old age, and summer, symbolizing youth, are diametrically opposed. Sonnet 6 Read and listen…

«Lo! in the orient when the gracious light Lifts up his burning head, each under eye».  The poet begs the young man not to die childless — “ere thou be distill’d” — without first making “sweet some vial.” Here, “distill’d” recalls the summer flowers from…

«Music to hear, why hear’st thou music sadly? Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy».  In this sonnet, the poet compares a single musical note to the young man and a chord made up of many notes to a family. The marriage of…

«Is it for fear to wet a widow’s eye That thou consumest thyself in single life?».  The poet imagines that the young man objects to the bliss of marriage on the grounds that he might die young anyway or that he might die and leave…

«For shame deny that thou bear’st love to any, Who for thyself art so unprovident».  Sonnet 10 repeats and extends the argument of Sonnet 9, with the added suggestion that the youth really loves no one. Clearly, the poet does not seriously believe the young…

«As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou growest In one of thine, from that which thou departest».  The poet now argues that the young man needs to have a child in order to maintain a balance in nature, for as the youth grows…

«When I do count the clock that tells the time, And see the brave day sunk in hideous night».  Sonnet 12 again speaks of the sterility of bachelorhood and recommends marriage and children as a means of immortality. Additionally, the sonnet gathers the themes of…

«O, that you were yourself! but, love, you are No longer yours than you yourself here live».  Sonnet 13 furthers Sonnet 12’s theme of death by again stating that death will forever vanquish the young man’s beauty if he dies without leaving a child. Sonnet…

«Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck; And yet methinks I have astronomy,».  Sonnet 13 depends on an intimate relationship between the poet and the young man that is symbolized in the use of the more affectionate “you”; Sonnet 14 discards — at…

«When I consider every thing that grows Holds in perfection but a little moment,».  In Sonnet 15‘s first eight lines, the poet surveys how objects mutate — decay — over time: “. . . every thing that grows / Holds in perfection but a little…

«But wherefore do not you a mightier way Make war upon this bloody tyrant, Time?».  Sonnet 16 continues the arguments for the youth to marry and at the same time now disparages the poet’s own poetic labors, for the poet concedes that children will ensure…

«Who will believe my verse in time to come, If it were fill’d with your most high deserts?».  In the earlier sonnets, the poet’s main concern was to persuade the youth to marry and reproduce his beauty in the creation of a child. That purpose…

«Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate».  One of the best known of Shakespeare’s sonnets, Sonnet 18 is memorable for the skillful and varied presentation of subject matter, in which the poet’s feelings reach a level of…

«Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion’s paws, And make the earth devour her own sweet brood».  In Sonnet 19, the poet addresses Time and, using vivid animal imagery, comments on Time’s normal effects on nature. The poet then commands Time not to age the young…

«A woman’s face with Nature’s own hand painted Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion».  In this crucial, sensual sonnet, the young man becomes the “master-mistress” of the poet’s passion. The young man’s double nature and character, however, present a problem of description: Although to…

«So is it not with me as with that Muse Stirr’d by a painted beauty to his verse».  Having explored the nature of his and the young man’s relationship in the previous sonnet, the poet now returns to his theme of immortality. Not only does…

«My glass shall not persuade me I am old, So long as youth and thou are of one date».  Until now, the poet’s feelings have soared to the level of rapture; in Sonnet 22, he suggests — perhaps deluding himself — that his affections are…

«As an unperfect actor on the stage Who with his fear is put besides his part».  Most of Sonnet 23 compares the poet’s role as a lover to an actor’s timidity onstage. The image of the poor theatrical player nervously missing his lines is the…

«Mine eye hath play’d the painter and hath stell’d Thy beauty’s form in table of my heart».  When the poet writes in Sonnet 24 of finding “where your true image pictured lies,” he focuses on a meaning of “true” in the sense of genuine as…

«Let those who are in favour with their stars Of public honour and proud titles boast».  In Sonnet 25, which has as its theme mortality versus immortality, the poet contrasts himself with those “who are in favor with their stars,” implying that, though he is…

«Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage Thy merit hath my duty strongly knit».  Sonnet 26 prepares for the young man’s absence from the poet, although the reason for this separation is not clear. The sonnet’s first two lines, “Lord of my love, to…

«Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed, The dear repose for limbs with travel tired».  The poet describes himself as being “weary with toil” and trying to sleep. The somber mood announces a new phase in the relationship. In the first four lines,…

«How can I then return in happy plight, That am debarr’d the benefit of rest?».  Images of absence, continued from the previous sonnet, show the poet at the point of emotional exhaustion and frustration due to his sleepless nights spent thinking about the young man.…

«When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state».  Resenting his bad luck, the poet envies the successful art of others and rattles off an impressive catalogue of the ills and misfortunes of his life. His depression is derived…

«When to the sessions of sweet silent thought I summon up remembrance of things past».  The poet repeats Sonnet 29’s theme, that memories of the youth are priceless compensations — not only for many disappointments and unrealized hopes but for the loss of earlier friends:…

«Thy bosom is endeared with all hearts, Which I by lacking have supposed dead».  Sonnet 31 expands upon the sentiment conveyed in the preceding sonnet’s concluding couplet, “But if the while I think on thee, dear friend, / All losses are restored and sorrows end.”…

«If thou survive my well-contented day, When that churl Death my bones with dust shall cover».  Sonnet 32 concludes the sonnet sequence on the poet’s depression over his absence from the youth. Sonnet 32 Read and listen If thou survive my well-contented day, When that…

«Full many a glorious morning have I seen Flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign eye».  Sonnet 33 begins a new phase in the poet and youth’s estrangement from each other. (The breach well may be caused by the youth’s seduction of the poet’s mistress, which the…

«Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day, And make me travel forth without my cloak».  The poet speaks of a quite different feeling than he did in Sonnet 33. He is puzzled and painfully disappointed by the youth, whose callousness dashes any hope of…

«No more be grieved at that which thou hast done: Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud».  Whereas in Sonnet 33 the poet is an onlooker, in the previous sonnet and here in Sonnet 35, the poet recognizes his own contribution to the youth’s wrongdoing…

«Let me confess that we two must be twain, Although our undivided loves are one».  Obstacles to the friendship between the poet and the young man remain, but the poet is no longer wholly duped by his young friend. However, he still maintains that their…

«As a decrepit father takes delight To see his active child do deeds of youth».  Sonnet 37, which echoes Sonnet 36, conveys the emotions of a doting parent and discontinues the confessional mode of the previous sonnets. Sonnet 37 Read and listen As a decrepit…

«How can my Muse want subject to invent, While thou dost breathe, that pour’st into my verse».  Like the previous sonnet, Sonnet 38 contrasts the selfishly lascivious youth and the adoring, idealistic poet. The poet appears pitifully unable to contemplate his life without the youth,…

«O, how thy worth with manners may I sing, When thou art all the better part of me?».  Sonnet 39 constructs an ingenious variation on the theme of absence. Ironically, separation is inspirational: “That by this separation I may give / That due to thee…

«Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all; What hast thou then more than thou hadst before?».  Sonnet 40 begins a three-sonnet sequence in which the poet shares his possessions and his mistress with the youth, although it is not until Sonnet 41…

«Those petty wrongs that liberty commits, When I am sometime absent from thy heart».  In order to forgive the youth for his actions, the poet places himself in both the youth’s position and that of the mistress. In the sonnet’s first four lines, the poet…

«That thou hast her, it is not all my grief, And yet it may be said I loved her dearly».  Only in this last sonnet concerning the youth and the poet’s mistress does the poet make fully apparent the main reason for his being so…

«When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see, For all the day they view things unrespected».  The next sonnet series on absence begins here with Sonnet 43 and continues through Sonnet 58. Throughout this new sequence, different meanings of the same words are…

«If the dull substance of my flesh were thought, Injurious distance should not stop my way».  Sonnet 44 and the following one form a continuous theme involving the four basic elements of matter according to Elizabethan science: earth, water, air, and fire. Sonnet 44 Read…

«The other two, slight air and purging fire, Are both with thee, wherever I abide».  This sonnet continues and completes the idea of Sonnet 44, but here air and fire — symbolizing the poet’s thoughts and desires, respectively — are linked to the youth because…

«Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war How to divide the conquest of thy sight».  The poet alludes to contradictions within himself when he considers his longing for the sight of the youth’s good looks and his need to love and be loved…

«Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took, And each doth good turns now unto the other».  In Sonnet 46, conflict between the eyes and heart is the theme. In Sonnet 47, these organs complement one another. Sonnet 47 Read and listen Betwixt mine…

«How careful was I, when I took my way, Each trifle under truest bars to thrust».  The youth keeps the poet on edge, and once again we see the poet’s bondage to the relationship. The poet develops a metaphorical contrast between being robbed of physical…

«Against that time, if ever that time come, When I shall see thee frown on my defects».  All pride is missing in this sonnet, whose first four lines continue the poet’s fear of the “truth” evoked in the preceding sonnet. Sonnet 49 Read and listen…

«How heavy do I journey on the way, When what I seek, my weary travel’s end».  Nothing suggests where the poet is journeying in this and the following sonnets. All that is known is that the poet is on an unnamed journey away from the…

«Thus can my love excuse the slow offence Of my dull bearer when from thee I speed».  The companion to the previous sonnet, Sonnet 51 further expands on the theme of traveling. Sonnet 51 Read and listen Thus can my love excuse the slow offence…

«So am I as the rich, whose blessed key Can bring him to his sweet up-locked treasure».  The poet grows more accepting of his separation from the young man, whom he likens to “up-lockèd treasure.”  Sonnet 52 Read and listen So am I as the…

«What is your substance, whereof are you made, That millions of strange shadows on you tend?».  A more relaxed poet appears to have forgotten his previous doubts about his relationship with the young man, who is still attractive but whose true self is elusive. Sonnet…

«O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem By that sweet ornament which truth doth give!».  The rose image in this sonnet symbolizes immortal truth and devotion, two virtues that the poet associates with the young man. Likening himself to a distiller, the poet, who…

«Not marble, nor the gilded monuments Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme».  Sonnet 55, one of Shakespeare’s most famous verses, asserts the immortality of the poet’s sonnets to withstand the forces of decay over time. The sonnet continues this theme from the previous sonnet,…

«Sweet love, renew thy force; be it not said Thy edge should blunter be than appetite».  Much like in Sonnet 52, the poet accepts that separation can be advantageous in making their love that much sweeter when the youth and the poet resume their relationship.…

«Being your slave, what should I do but tend Upon the hours and times of your desire?».  In Sonnet 57, the poet argues that he is not so much the young man’s friend as he is his slave. As a slave, he waits on the…

«That god forbid that made me first your slave, I should in thought control your times of pleasure».  As in so many other sonnets, the poet’s annoyance with the young man is expressed ambiguously. We hardly notice that he rebukes the youth in the lines…

«If there be nothing new, but that which is Hath been before, how are our brains beguiled».  Sonnet 59 dwells on the paradox that what is new is always expressed in terms of what is already known. The elements of any invention or creative composition…

«Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, So do our minutes hasten to their end».  Sonnet 60 is acknowledged as one of Shakespeare’s greatest because it deals with the universal concerns of time and its passing. Sonnet 60 Read and listen Like as…

«Is it thy will thy image should keep open My heavy eyelids to the weary night?».  The youth continues to present a variety of phantom images to the poet. Trying to settle on one authentic image, the poet cannot sleep because of the emotional turmoil…

«Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye And all my soul and all my every part».  The poet thinks of himself as a young man and condemns his own narcissistic vanity. Unfortunately, although he can intellectualize narcissism as an unworthy attribute, nonetheless “It is so…

«Against my love shall be, as I am now, With Time’s injurious hand crush’d and o’er-worn».  References to the young man’s future are signs of the poet’s fear that love cannot defend against time. Sonnet 63 Read and listen Against my love shall be, as…

«When I have seen by Time’s fell hand defaced The rich proud cost of outworn buried age».  In Sonnet 64, the poet is portrayed as a historian, philosopher, and antiquarian who dreams of time’s relentless destruction of ancient glories. Monuments that reflect the noblest ideas…

«Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea, But sad mortality o’er-sways their power».  Continuing many of the images from Sonnet 64, the poet concludes that nothing withstands time’s ravages. Sonnet 65 Read and listen Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea,…

«Tired with all these, for restful death I cry, As, to behold desert a beggar born».  Were it not that dying would take him from his love, the angry speaker of this litany of life’s disappointments would die. Sonnet 66 Read and listen Tired with…

«Ah! wherefore with infection should he live, And with his presence grace impiety».  Sonnet 67 continues the thought of the previous sonnet, and develops a new argument in its reflection upon the poet’s contemporary age. Sonnet 67 Read and listen Ah! wherefore with infection should…

«Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn, When beauty lived and died as flowers do now».  Because the young man epitomizes ancient standards of true beauty, he does not need cosmetics or a wig made from “the golden tresses of the dead.” Sonnet…

«Those parts of thee that the world’s eye doth view Want nothing that the thought of hearts can mend».  Although the youth’s enemies praise his appearance, they all but slander him in their private meetings. Sonnet 69 Read and listen Those parts of thee that…

«That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect, For slander’s mark was ever yet the fair».  The poet is unable to maintain his disapproval of the young man, but he forgives without forgetting. The youth can blame only himself for the slanderous rumors about…

«No longer mourn for me when I am dead Then you shall hear the surly sullen bell».  In this and the next three sonnets, the poet’s mood becomes increasingly morbid. Here he anticipates his own death: “No longer mourn for me when I am dead…

«O, lest the world should task you to recite What merit lived in me, that you should love».  Sonnet 72 echoes the mood of Sonnet 71, and the poet tells the youth not to praise his verse after the poet’s death, as his praise could…

«That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang».  The poet indicates his feeling that he has not long to live through the imagery of the wintry bough, twilight’s afterglow, and a fire’s dying embers. All…

«But be contented: when that fell arrest Without all bail shall carry me away».  The poet continues his obsessive concern with his own death. Although he emphasizes his own inadequacy as a person, he boldly asserts the greatness of his verse: “My life hath in…

«So are you to my thoughts as food to life, Or as sweet-season’d showers are to the ground».  The poet is torn by contrary feelings that he cannot reconcile. His relationship with the youth alternates between pleasure — “Sometime all full with feasting on your…

«Why is my verse so barren of new pride, So far from variation or quick change?».  Complaining that his verse is sadly limited, the poet acknowledges that his praise of the young man allows no new form of argument. As a traditionalist, the poet rejects…

«Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear, Thy dial how thy precious minutes waste».  The youth’s aging face will be reflected in a mirror, and the passage of time will be reflected on his watch, clashing with the youth’s eternally young thoughts. Sonnet…

«So oft have I invoked thee for my Muse And found such fair assistance in my verse».  The poet’s success in gaining entry into the youth’s good graces inspires imitators: “As every alien pen hath got my use, / And under thee their poesy disperse.”…

«Whilst I alone did call upon thy aid, My verse alone had all thy gentle grace».  Sonnet 79 presents the first specific reference to a rival poet who vies for the young man’s affections. Without losing his sense of moral superiority, the poet bitterly resents…

«O, how I faint when I of you do write, Knowing a better spirit doth use your name».  The poet acknowledges that the rival poet displaces him in the youth’s favor. Feeling discouraged by the superiority of the “better spirit” of the rival poet, whom…

«Or I shall live your epitaph to make, Or you survive when I in earth am rotten».  The poet rebounds somewhat in the face of the rival poet’s opposition. Reverting to tried-and-tested themes, he heroically assures the youth that he, unlike the rival poet, can…

«I grant thou wert not married to my Muse And therefore mayst without attaint o’erlook».  A less subdued poet challenges the rival poet. In contrast to the intellectually fashionable rival, the poet possesses an intuitive, almost spiritual inspiration. Sonnet 82 Read and listen I grant…

«I never saw that you did painting need And therefore to your fair no painting set».  Apparently having been reproached by the youth for withdrawing from competition against the rival poet, the poet argues that it is better not to write any poetry than to…

«Who is it that says most? which can say more Than this rich praise, that you alone are you?».  The poet offers advice — while criticizing the rival poet — to any writer who wishes to achieve true poetry: Copying and interpreting nature are necessary…

«My tongue-tied Muse in manners holds her still, While comments of your praise, richly compiled».  The poet likens himself to an “unlettered clerk” and finds his Muse “tongue-tied” — the identical phrase the poet used in Sonnet 80 to characterize himself. Sonnet 85 Read and…

«Was it the proud full sail of his great verse, Bound for the prize of all too precious you».  Unlike the previous sonnets dealing with the rival poet, this last sonnet in the rival-poet sequence is written in the past tense and indicates that the…

«Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing, And like enough thou know’st thy estimate».  Sonnet 87 reads like a conclusion to the sonnet sequence describing the dominance of the rival poet, but in fact is the poet’s farewell to the youth, who has returned…

«When thou shalt be disposed to set me light, And place my merit in the eye of scorn».  The poet speaks of his relationship with the young man as though it has been repaired after the rival poet’s departure, but his is a vision of…

«Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault, And I will comment upon that offence».  Continuing where the previous sonnet left off, this sonnet reveals an undertone of apprehension in the poet’s references to the young man. Whatever the slanderous accusation the youth will…

«Then hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now; Now, while the world is bent my deeds to cross».  Already distressed by “the spite of fortune,” the poet urges the youth not to postpone his desertion of him if that is what he intends; do…

«Some glory in their birth, some in their skill, Some in their wealth, some in their bodies’ force».  The poet examines his love for the young man in a more relaxed, less urgent vein. He first catalogues different activities that people like to immerse themselves…

«But do thy worst to steal thyself away, For term of life thou art assured mine».  Resignedly, the poet is prepared to accept whatever fate brings. Because his life depends on the youth’s love, his life will not survive the loss of that love and…

«So shall I live, supposing thou art true, Like a deceived husband; so love’s face».  In contrast to the concluding couplet in the previous sonnet, in which the poet questions the young man’s moral character, now the poet surmises that the youth may be inconstant…

«They that have power to hurt and will do none, That do not do the thing they most do show».  On the surface at least, Sonnet 94 continues the theme from the previous sonnet, which contrasts virtue with appearance. Although the sonnet offers a warm…

«How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame Which, like a canker in the fragrant rose».  Employing a paternal attitude, the poet continues his lecture on how deceiving appearances can be. In the first quatrain, he constructs a simile in which the young man…

«Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness; Some say thy grace is youth and gentle sport».  Still using the paternal tone, the poet observes that the young man’s vices are a subject of public gossip. The contrast between the youth’s beauty and his vicious…

«How like a winter hath my absence been From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!».  The poet begins a new sequence of sonnets, written in his absence from the youth during the summer and autumn months, although the first image in Sonnet 97 is…

«From you have I been absent in the spring, When proud-pied April dress’d in all his trim».  The theme of absence continues with the youth away. The poet first describes April in a buoyant tone, and says that even “heavy Saturn,” which during the Elizabethan…

«The forward violet thus did I chide: Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells».  Sonnet 99 is an in-depth explanation of how the natural objects from lines 11 and 12 in the previous sonnet pale in comparison to the young man’s beauty:…

«Where art thou, Muse, that thou forget’st so long To speak of that which gives thee all thy might?».  Sonnet 100 marks a change in the poet’s thinking from previous sonnets, in which the simplicity of his poetry was expected to win favor against rivals,…

«O truant Muse, what shall be thy amends For thy neglect of truth in beauty dyed?».  Continuing his plea to the Muse of poetry, the poet abandons his silence and philosophizes about the nature of truth and beauty. Sonnet 101 Read and listen O truant…

«My love is strengthen’d, though more weak in seeming; I love not less, though less the show appear».  To justify not writing verse about the young man, the poet argues that constantly proclaiming love for someone cheapens the genuineness of the emotion. Sonnet 102 Read…

«Alack, what poverty my Muse brings forth, That having such a scope to show her pride».  The poet continues to bewail his abandonment by his Muse, although he concedes that his love for the youth is stronger because of the absence: “The argument all bare…

«To me, fair friend, you never can be old, For as you were when first your eye I eyed».  Sonnet 104 indicates for the first time that the poet and young man’s relationship has gone on for three years. Evoking seasonal imagery from previous sonnets,…

All Shakespeare’s sonnets with audio reading and short analysis. Introduction. Shakespeare’s sonnets are among the most beloved and well-known poems in the English language. Composed of 14 lines, they are divided into three quatrains and a final, concluding couplet, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg. This…