What do you think?
Rate this book
Sonnets and Other Poems
From the Royal Shakespeare Company - a modern, definitive edition of Shakespeare's much-loved sonnets and poems. With an expert introduction by Sir Jonathan Bate, this unique edition presents a historical overview of Shakespeare's Sonnets and Other Poems, providing an illuminating insight into the extraordinary variety of interpretations that are possible.
Ideal for students and lovers of Shakespeare everywhere, the RSC editions offer a fresh, accessible and contemporary approach to reading and rediscovering Shakespeare's works for the twenty-first century.
Ideal for students and lovers of Shakespeare everywhere, the RSC editions offer a fresh, accessible and contemporary approach to reading and rediscovering Shakespeare's works for the twenty-first century.
388 pages, Paperback
Published April 23, 2009
31 people are currently reading
286 people want to read
About the author
William Shakespeare
27.9k books47.2k followersWilliam Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men after the ascension of King James VI and I of Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs, and even certain fringe theories as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminge and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men after the ascension of King James VI and I of Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs, and even certain fringe theories as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminge and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
Read
December 28, 2020No rating since theres a huge chunk I didn't grasp because my brain be like that with poetry
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ it happens lol.
Surprisingly, I found the sonnets to be far more entertaining than the poetry sections. I found myself bookmarking a large amount of them and locating the audio versions so I can experience the best recitals of them.
Some of my faves were:
"Two loves I have of comfort and despair,
Which like two spirits do suggest me still
The better angel is a man right fair,
The worser spirit a woman coloured ill.
To win me soon to hell, my female evil
Tempteth my better angel from my side,
And would corrupt my saint to be a devil,
Wooing his purity with her foul pride.
And, whether that my angel be turn’d fiend,
Suspect I may, yet not directly tell,
But being both from me both to each friend,
I guess one angel in another’s hell.
Yet this shall I ne’er know, but live in doubt,
Till my bad angel fire my good one out."
"When my love swears that she is made of truth,
I do believe her, though I know she lies,
That she might think me some untutored youth,
Unlearnèd in the world’s false subtleties.
Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young,
Although she knows my days are past the best,
Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue:
On both sides thus is simple truth suppressed.
But wherefore says she not she is unjust?
And wherefore say not I that I am old?
Oh, love’s best habit is in seeming trust,
And age in love loves not to have years told.
Therefore I lie with her and she with me,
And in our faults by lies we flattered be."
''’Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed
When not to be receives reproach of being,
And the just pleasure lost, which is so deemed
Not by our feeling but by others' seeing.
For why should others’ false adulterate eyes
Give salutation to my sportive blood?
Or on my frailties why are frailer spies,
Which in their wills count bad that I think good?
No, I am that I am; and they that level
At my abuses reckon up their own:
I may be straight though they themselves be bevel;
By their rank thoughts my deeds must not be shown,
Unless this general evil they maintain:
All men are bad and in their badness reign.''
The only poem I was HIGHLY amused by from beginning to end was Venus and Adonis cuz lady was THIRSTY AF and Adonis was SO annoyed lol. The entire page and a half where she's feeling and boosting herself up, as well as cementing the fact that no man can ever reject her in her mind, had me rolling. Venus reminds me of my mom lol.
A Lover's Complaint was aight and I could have done without The Rape of Lucrece *rolls eyes.* The Passionate Pilgrim and The Pheonix and the Turtle were fine but I can already find myself forgetting about them.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ it happens lol.
Surprisingly, I found the sonnets to be far more entertaining than the poetry sections. I found myself bookmarking a large amount of them and locating the audio versions so I can experience the best recitals of them.
Some of my faves were:
"Two loves I have of comfort and despair,
Which like two spirits do suggest me still
The better angel is a man right fair,
The worser spirit a woman coloured ill.
To win me soon to hell, my female evil
Tempteth my better angel from my side,
And would corrupt my saint to be a devil,
Wooing his purity with her foul pride.
And, whether that my angel be turn’d fiend,
Suspect I may, yet not directly tell,
But being both from me both to each friend,
I guess one angel in another’s hell.
Yet this shall I ne’er know, but live in doubt,
Till my bad angel fire my good one out."
"When my love swears that she is made of truth,
I do believe her, though I know she lies,
That she might think me some untutored youth,
Unlearnèd in the world’s false subtleties.
Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young,
Although she knows my days are past the best,
Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue:
On both sides thus is simple truth suppressed.
But wherefore says she not she is unjust?
And wherefore say not I that I am old?
Oh, love’s best habit is in seeming trust,
And age in love loves not to have years told.
Therefore I lie with her and she with me,
And in our faults by lies we flattered be."
''’Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed
When not to be receives reproach of being,
And the just pleasure lost, which is so deemed
Not by our feeling but by others' seeing.
For why should others’ false adulterate eyes
Give salutation to my sportive blood?
Or on my frailties why are frailer spies,
Which in their wills count bad that I think good?
No, I am that I am; and they that level
At my abuses reckon up their own:
I may be straight though they themselves be bevel;
By their rank thoughts my deeds must not be shown,
Unless this general evil they maintain:
All men are bad and in their badness reign.''
The only poem I was HIGHLY amused by from beginning to end was Venus and Adonis cuz lady was THIRSTY AF and Adonis was SO annoyed lol. The entire page and a half where she's feeling and boosting herself up, as well as cementing the fact that no man can ever reject her in her mind, had me rolling. Venus reminds me of my mom lol.
A Lover's Complaint was aight and I could have done without The Rape of Lucrece *rolls eyes.* The Passionate Pilgrim and The Pheonix and the Turtle were fine but I can already find myself forgetting about them.
March 24, 2013
I drifted through several lovely summer mornings lazing with this book in a suburban wilderness (local park). Paired with the inevitably blooming atmosphere, the poems and sonnets just seem so much more impressive in hindsight. I can look back on those moments reading this anthology and feel a pleasant postcoitalesque literary glow. Every page of this book is covered with notes, and several poems and sonnets are even highlighted. I don't think I've ever appreciated poetry this much, and I doubt I ever will. This goes out to the bard for writing some badass stuff.
Sonnets: Overall - 4 Stars
Venus and Adonis - 5 Stars
The Rape of Lucrece - 4.5 Stars
The Passionate Pilgrim - 4.8 Stars
"To the Queen" - 3 Stars
Let the Bird of Loudest Lay (The Phoenix and the Turtle) - 4 Stars
A Lover's Complaint - 3.5 Stars
Sonnets: Overall - 4 Stars
Venus and Adonis - 5 Stars
The Rape of Lucrece - 4.5 Stars
The Passionate Pilgrim - 4.8 Stars
"To the Queen" - 3 Stars
Let the Bird of Loudest Lay (The Phoenix and the Turtle) - 4 Stars
A Lover's Complaint - 3.5 Stars
June 15, 2020
I loved the poems but my god were some of the sonnets underwhelming...repetitive too but it could be my fault for entering relatively uneducated in the world of Shakespeare. Some sentences are just pure genius too though!
January 9, 2024
I have been slowly reading the sonnets starting with one and going through to 154, which I read last night.
I really loved some, liked some and admit I really did not like some too . Sometimes it seemed too big a project to read them all but then an amazing sonnet would come along and I was all enthused again. Reading them all took months.
Admittedly some of the sonnets were just too difficult to understand (and I really tried ).
Reading these is not a quick process, but taking time with them often uncovers gold. I used an excellent Helen Vendler book (The art of Shakespeares Sonnets) to help and also listened to @sirpatstew reading them aloud. If I got stuck the website Poemanalysis.com was really helpful. The RSC edition of the book of sonnets is excellent with good notes too.
It became a reading habit, picking up my tatty, annotated to death, scuffed and battered edition…a habit that I will really miss. So I will slowly read them again.
I ended up with quite a few favourite’s. I loved 73 &74, 29, 138, 129, 126, 109 and 113
I really loved some, liked some and admit I really did not like some too . Sometimes it seemed too big a project to read them all but then an amazing sonnet would come along and I was all enthused again. Reading them all took months.
Admittedly some of the sonnets were just too difficult to understand (and I really tried ).
Reading these is not a quick process, but taking time with them often uncovers gold. I used an excellent Helen Vendler book (The art of Shakespeares Sonnets) to help and also listened to @sirpatstew reading them aloud. If I got stuck the website Poemanalysis.com was really helpful. The RSC edition of the book of sonnets is excellent with good notes too.
It became a reading habit, picking up my tatty, annotated to death, scuffed and battered edition…a habit that I will really miss. So I will slowly read them again.
I ended up with quite a few favourite’s. I loved 73 &74, 29, 138, 129, 126, 109 and 113
March 6, 2014
Nation's Favourite Poems: features in a 1996 nationwide poll compilation.
From wiki - Sonnet 18, often alternately titled Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?, is one of the best-known of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. In the sonnet, the poet compares his beloved to the summer season, and argues that his beloved is better. The poet also states that his beloved will live on forever through the words of the poem. Scholars have found parallels within the poem to Ovid's Tristia and Amores, both of which have love themes. Sonnet 18 is written in the typical Shakespearean sonnet form, having 14 lines of iambic pentameter ending in a rhymed couplet. Detailed exegeses have revealed several double meanings within the poem, giving it a greater depth of interpretation.
From wiki - Sonnet 18, often alternately titled Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?, is one of the best-known of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. In the sonnet, the poet compares his beloved to the summer season, and argues that his beloved is better. The poet also states that his beloved will live on forever through the words of the poem. Scholars have found parallels within the poem to Ovid's Tristia and Amores, both of which have love themes. Sonnet 18 is written in the typical Shakespearean sonnet form, having 14 lines of iambic pentameter ending in a rhymed couplet. Detailed exegeses have revealed several double meanings within the poem, giving it a greater depth of interpretation.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 10, 2021
"What win I, if I gain the thing I seek?
A dream, a breath, a froth of fleeting joy:
Who buys a minute's mirth to wail a week?
Or sells eternity to get a toy?"
*3.75 ★
A dream, a breath, a froth of fleeting joy:
Who buys a minute's mirth to wail a week?
Or sells eternity to get a toy?"
*3.75 ★
March 4, 2024
Sonnet 130. That’s it. If you know you know.
January 31, 2025
5/5⭐️
Fav sonnets: 81 + 92
Fav sonnets: 81 + 92
November 13, 2021
3.5/5 ⭐. A good chunk of the sonnets I read I enjoyed, but the complexity of the language made it difficult to read. This is coming from a person who loves poetry, so if you are trying to get into reading poems, this probably wouldn't be a good place to start. However, I do recommend giving Shakespeare's Sonnets a try to people who are well acquainted with poetry and an older style of writing.
February 21, 2015
I bought a copy of this work from Waldenbooks and Borders in 2007 before the company closed. Shakespeare delivers some sweet, sensual lyrics in his prose that illuminate some of his key devices of literature.
September 19, 2018
A collection of all the poems and stories that my younger self treasured, all wrapped into one book. I took my time reading this one as I had to soak in all the amazing meanings and deep emotion that only Shakespeare himself could of thought up of.
This book was a blessing to have found.
This book was a blessing to have found.
April 26, 2024
Great collection of sonnets and poems. I much prefer Shakespeare’s plays however.
January 23, 2014
Reading Shakespeare in school is a little bit like being told to eat your greens at the dinner table; they are supposed to be good for you, but as soon as we hit adulthood we chose to give them up. Shakespeare has never felt this way to me, but I did realize recently that my knowledge of his writing was rather one dimensional, being limited to his plays. I picked up this little book, only 206 pages, decided I would expand my mind, and read the dreaded love poems and sonnets. I was very pleasantly surprised by what I encountered.
Like many modern day Authors, playwrights and poets who are firmly placed in a particular genre, Shakespeare is stereotyped as a playwright who filled the acts of his plays with doom and gloom, foreboding and dread and, in some cases motivational and uplifting speeches to enthral and shock his audiences. He covered topics in his plays that would not even be spoken of in polite society today; none of this is apparent in this wonderful collection of sonnets and poems. Given the time period in which he penned this now collection, they filled me with a new respect for this man who, amidst all the horrors that accompany living in the late 1500’s – early 1600’s, could still find beauty and hope in his surroundings. Also, when taken into consideration his poems Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece were written whilst plague ravaged England, it is a true measure of the man’s skill that he ignored these happenings and focused on the human traits of lust and moral confusion to convey his message.
Although appearing first in this book, the sonnets were the last of Shakespeare’s non-dramatic works to be published, and in writing them it appears to the reader that they are actually seeing inside the writer’s soul at what truly makes him tick. In reading this collection it broadened my mind as to who Shakespeare was, and actually gave me a greater appreciation for his works as a whole.
I would recommend this collection to those who love good poetry, but also those who may shy away from anything Shakespeare. This is the kind of book you take on a picnic to the park, and dip in and out of while enjoying the warm sun and a good glass of wine.
Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.com/2014/01/21...
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Like many modern day Authors, playwrights and poets who are firmly placed in a particular genre, Shakespeare is stereotyped as a playwright who filled the acts of his plays with doom and gloom, foreboding and dread and, in some cases motivational and uplifting speeches to enthral and shock his audiences. He covered topics in his plays that would not even be spoken of in polite society today; none of this is apparent in this wonderful collection of sonnets and poems. Given the time period in which he penned this now collection, they filled me with a new respect for this man who, amidst all the horrors that accompany living in the late 1500’s – early 1600’s, could still find beauty and hope in his surroundings. Also, when taken into consideration his poems Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece were written whilst plague ravaged England, it is a true measure of the man’s skill that he ignored these happenings and focused on the human traits of lust and moral confusion to convey his message.
Although appearing first in this book, the sonnets were the last of Shakespeare’s non-dramatic works to be published, and in writing them it appears to the reader that they are actually seeing inside the writer’s soul at what truly makes him tick. In reading this collection it broadened my mind as to who Shakespeare was, and actually gave me a greater appreciation for his works as a whole.
I would recommend this collection to those who love good poetry, but also those who may shy away from anything Shakespeare. This is the kind of book you take on a picnic to the park, and dip in and out of while enjoying the warm sun and a good glass of wine.
Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.com/2014/01/21...
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
December 11, 2021
It's hard to rate Shakespeare. He really deserves 4 or 5 stars for his writing, for being such a timeless master of words. And yet, I can't say much more than 'I liked it', 3 stars, for me personally.
A little tip I learned over the 3+ years it took me to read through all of these sonnets: Try reading Shakespeare in the middle of the night when you can't sleep. For some reason, at least for me, it makes SO much more sense in the middle of the night! I guess because my mind is clear and wants a distraction from sleep anxiety... I don't know why, but I got twice as much out of them if I read them in the middle of the night.
A little tip I learned over the 3+ years it took me to read through all of these sonnets: Try reading Shakespeare in the middle of the night when you can't sleep. For some reason, at least for me, it makes SO much more sense in the middle of the night! I guess because my mind is clear and wants a distraction from sleep anxiety... I don't know why, but I got twice as much out of them if I read them in the middle of the night.
March 27, 2018
It was hard for me to get through this reading, what with the whole lot of homework I had to do once classes started I had problems concentrating or finding time to read at all... Once more, Shakespeare delivers, but of course he does, I'm giving this book a 4.5/5 stars because I don't really like poems that are too long. Yet this writers always manages to astound me with beautiful depictions of emotions and people, these works are not the exception.
November 2, 2020
A timeless classic! This is a book I will return to again and again. I have had this book for nearly fifteen years now, and it is still in mint condition. It is a treasure, a valuable piece of art with sonnets that can span from anything to death to love, war to peace, heartache to pure joy. Shakespeare's poems are something that I will return to in the near future, so for now it is shelved but not for long...
January 31, 2020
It is probably not much of the fault of Shakespeare that I didn't enjoy this book. It was in Early Modern English and it was a strain to read and understand. It took me a very long time to read this book and the only part I enjoyed dearly was Venus and Adonis. I recommend reading it for the sake of Shakespeare but in many cases it is unenjoyable.
March 8, 2022
I'm so glad to have finally finished reading this. It took me a long time to work up the motivation to finish this story after I set it down for a really long time. He's a very skillful writer and I will always appreciate his work, but I think I will probably stick to his plays mostly going forward.
September 27, 2015
I read the Introduction, Venus and Adonis and the Sonnets from this collection for my university course and overall really enjoyed them!
I read the sonnets in a day and I'm really looking forward to analysing them further my first university essay! :)
I read the sonnets in a day and I'm really looking forward to analysing them further my first university essay! :)
April 10, 2016
Beautiful! My favorites are 6, 8, 18, 24, 27, 61, 66, 75, 99, and 116.
May 8, 2014
This is a very readable edition of Shakespeare's poetry, everything is clear with useful footnotes that don't detract from the poems themselves.
April 2, 2021
Great collection of poems.
April 5, 2021
A really lovely copy
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews