I was about to make a bold attempt to pick the best from the collection of Shakespeare’s Sonnets. I failed.
So I decided to write about the most famous Shakespeare’s Sonnets from the collection of 154 sonnets. I applied a straight-forward method, by picking up those which are “most searched” and “most viewed” online.
This method is reliable, as it has nothing to do with favouritism or opinion. Coincidently 6 of these are my favourite but many are left out. Everyone should see the complete collection of 154 sonnets with analysis and explore the genius of the master.
But before we begin with our list you should be aware a bit about the background. Read about the dedication, imagery and other stuff about Shakespeare’s Sonnets before proceeding to the list.
Shakespeare’s Sonnets: Dedication
Shakespeare’s sonnets can be classified into two groups. Sonnets 1-126 and Sonnets 127-152.
Sonnets of the 1st group are addressed to a young man, who is probably “Earl of Southampton”. Whereas the 2nd group are addressed to a woman who is known as “dark lady“.
Sonnet number 153 and 154 are a celebration of love because they describe the invincible power of cupid.
Difference between Shakespeare’s Sonnets & other sonnets
The sonnet was imported to England by Thomas Wyatt, who followed Petrarch’s style of sonnet writing. In fact, most of the sonnet-writers of Elizabethan age followed Petrarch’s model of the sonnet.
Now, Shakespeare’s sonnets followed several conventions of the sonnet-writing of his time. But it deviated in theme, reasoning, unconventional attitude towards his friend, introduction of philosophic concepts, the concept of beauty etc.
Imagery in Shakespeare’s Sonnets
The abundance of imagery in Shakespeare’s sonnets is indeed one of the most conspicuous features. There is the imagery of natural objects, natural phenomena, and natural processes. There is both abstract and concrete imagery in sonnets.
The abstract imagery is psychological in nature. It depicts the working of the mind of Shakespeare, his friend and mistress. The concrete imagery is found in the pictures of Nature and of the external aspects of human life.
The imagery used in Shakespeare’s sonnets is so vivid that it brings all the sights before our eyes. We get the impression that we are actually witnessing those sights with our own eyes.
Blending of Lyrical & Dramatic in Shakespeare’s Sonnets
Shakespeare’s sonnets have the blending of both lyrical and dramatic qualities. The lyric is basically personal in inspiration and in feeling, while a drama or a play is basically impersonal.
one comes directly from the poet’s own heart, while the other is based upon the writer’s observation of human nature.
Shakespeare’s Sonnets: Top 10
Each of Shakespeare’s Sonnets listed below has a link to “complete analysis“, “Main idea & emotion“, and “critical appreciation“.
1. Sonnet 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
WIKI
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
- SHAKESPEARE
Idea & Emotion
A beautiful day in summer is variable and short-lived. The beauty of Shakespeare’s friend, however, is lovelier than this beauty. Shakespeare would immortalize his friend’s beauty by means of the sonnets which he has written.
The joy in a friend’s beauty and pride in writing this sonnet are two emotions depicted here.
Critical Note
Shakespeare has here glorified or idealized the beauty of his friend. This sonnet is, therefore, his tribute or homage to his friend. The emotion in this sonnet is not mild or lukewarm, the emotion here is intense. In fact, the sonnet seems to throb with emotion. Nor can we doubt the author’s sincerity. Spontaneity is another characteristic of this sonnet which seems to have flowed from Shakespeare’s pen.
Shakespeare’s sonnets abound in figures of speech, and here we have several metaphors. If the beauty of Shakespeare’s friend is admirable, so is this sonnet. Here we have one of the most exquisite and one of the most delightful sonnets.
The most remarkable quality of this sonnet is the evidence which it provides of Shakespeare’s awareness of his own greatness. Shakespeare was not an “unconscious” genius, as it sometimes affirmed. He is fully conscious of his exceptional gifts as a poet, and this sonnet shows that consciousness. He knew that his works would be read for all times to come.
2. Sonnet 29
When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes
WIKI
When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
Idea & Emotion
The intensity of Shakespeare’s love for his friends, as expressed in Shakespeare’s sonnet 29, is the most striking feature.
Sometimes Shakespeare finds himself in a mood of distress. Because of his failure to have achieved what other people can boast of. Then he finds great relief in the thoughts of his friend.
Having such a friend (as the Earl of Southampton) is a rich compensation to Shakespeare for all his wants. His friend’s love constitutes a treasure which is more valuable to him than all the wealth of kings.
Critical Note
The theme of Shakespeare’s Sonnet number 29, is the celebration of his friendship with the Earl of Southampton. But it may also serve as a celebration of true friendship in general.
In the first half of the sonnet, Shakespeare speaks of his sense of disappointment in life. In the second half, he speaks of the rich compensation that he has got. It is, indeed, an exquisite sonnet both by virtue of its theme and its style.
Each one of us has his moments of depression caused by the feeling of frustration in life. We compare ourselves with others and find that we have not been able to achieve what others have got. At such times, one can derive a lot of pleasure from the fact that he has got a true friend.
Friendship is, indeed, something very precious; but it is a treasure which only a few can claim to have acquired. The language used in this sonnet is a very striking example of Shakespeare’s capacity to choose the most appropriate words and to put them into excellent combinations. This kind of manipulation of language and this skill in combining words into phrases and clauses constitute what is known as the felicity of style.
The development of the idea in this sonnet is most logical, and the conclusion reached at the end comes as an appropriate climax.
3. Sonnet 30
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
WIKI
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unus'd to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe,
And moan th' expense of many a vanish'd sight;
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restor'd, and sorrows end.
Idea & Emotion
Sometimes the poet thinks of his past life and recalls the losses and the griefs which he has suffered. The memories of those losses and griefs sadden him greatly. Thus a feeling of self-pity runs through the sonnet. In the end, however, Shakespeare feels consoled by the thought of his friend who is still alive.
Critical Note
Sonnet 30 by Shakespeare is another masterpiece. The mood here is one of profound grief. The poet thinks of his past losses, misfortunes, sorrows, and griefs. His misfortunes include the deaths of some of his friends and the disappointments and frustrations which he experienced because of his inability to achieve many of the objects of his desire.
The recollections of his past sorrows and misfortunes bring tears into his eyes even though he had wept over those losses and misfortunes when they had actually befallen him. What the poet has said in this sonnet is psychologically true because it is a common experience for any one of us to sign and grieve afresh over those losses and sorrows over which we had grieved at the time of their occurrence.
Apart from the psychological truth of these lines, and part from the intensity, profundity, and deep sincerity of the grief in this poem, Shakespeare’s felicity in the use of words and in combining words into phrases and lines is here noteworthy.
Although this sonnet contains a poignant account of Shakespeare’s losses and sorrows, yet the crucial lines are the last two in which Shakespeare affirms that he feels compensated for those losses and sorrows by the thought of his friend, namely the Earl of Southampton.
4. Sonnet 33
Full many a glorious morning have I seen
WIKI
Full many a glorious morning have I seen
Flatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye,
Kissing with golden face the meadows green,
Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy,
Anon permit the basest clouds to ride
With ugly rack on his celestial face,
And from the fórlorn world his visage hide,
Stealing unseen to west with this disgrace.
Ev’n so my sun one early morn did shine
With all triumphant splendor on my brow;
But out alack, he was but one hour mine;
The region cloud hath masked him from me now.
Yet him for this my love no whit disdaineth.
Suns of the world may stain when heav‘n’s sun staineth.
Idea & Emotion
Although his friend has begun to treat Shakespeare with a touch of contempt. Shakespeare’s love for his friend has certainly not diminished in any way. His friend is to Shakespeare what the sun in the sky is to the earth below. The sun in the sky seems sometimes to lose its brightness because of a passing cloud. In the same way, his friend has become scornful towards him because of circumstances.
Critical Note
A new idea has been expressed in this sonnet. We find Shakespeare complaining about a change in the attitude towards him from his friend.
The idea is simple, but it has been expressed through rich imagery, beautiful conceits, and excellent metaphors. And the whole effect has been achieved by the use of choice words and phrases. As for the imagery, we have “the mountain-tops”, “the meadows green” and “gliding pale streams”. As for the conceits, we have the notion that the sun is flattering the mountain-tops, “kissing with golden face meadows green”, permitting the basest clouds to hide its face, and so on.
The finest conceit is where the friend is visualised as throwing all his brightness on Shakespear’s forehead. And then being masked by a cloud. To describe his friend as his sun is a metaphor, and also a conceit.
The closing line clinches the issue by giving us generalization which reads like an aphorism or a proverb. All in all, we have here a wonderful sonnet combining several poetic merits. And there is no obscurity at all here. On the contrary, this sonnet shows that Shakespeare was capable of writing in a most lucid style.
5. Sonnet 66
Tir’d with all these, for restful death I cry
WIKI
Tir'd with all these, for restful death I cry,
As, to behold desert a beggar born,
And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity,
And purest faith unhappily forsworn,
And guilded honour shamefully misplaced,
And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,
And right perfection wrongfully disgraced,
And strength by limping sway disabled,
And art made tongue-tied by authority,
And folly (doctor-like) controlling skill,
And simple truth miscall'd simplicity,
And captive good attending captain ill:
Tired with all these, from these would I be gone,
Save that, to die, I leave my love alone.
Idea & Emotion
Human life offers a very sad spectacle because of the many evils which are rampant in the world. This spectacle is so painful to Shakespeare that he would like to die in order to find an escape and relief from that pain. The only thing which obstructs his longing for death is the fact that by dying he would be leaving his beloved friend alone in the world.
Critical note
Among all Shakespeare’s sonnets, sonnet number 66 is the most pessimistic sonnet, but the most realistic one.
It is true that Shakespeare here looks at only the dark side of human life and takes no cognizance of the bright side. But sometimes an author is in such a sad mood that it is only the dark aspects of life which he visualizes. As in most of the other sonnets in this series, Shakespeare devotes the first twelve lines to certain details which lead him to the conclusion stated in the last two closing lines.
The first twelve lines here contain what may be called a catalogue of some of the most depressing facts of human life. Each of the first twelve lines contains a specific grievance which Shakespeare has against human life, but the most striking feature of each one is the vivid picture which it presents to our minds.
Vivid Pictures
A man possessing merit and worth is born as a pauper. One who has no merit in him at all goes about in gay apparel, enjoying himself. A trustworthy man, who is faithful to his friends, or who possess religious piety, betrays his faith and become a deceiver. A titled person, who has a high sense of humour, turns into an unscrupulous man. A virtuous damsel finds herself compelled to take to prostitution. A strong man in enfeebled by an exercise of authority by the weak and wavering rule of those who hold the reins of power in their hands. Artists and other intellectuals are forced into submission and silence by powerful and highly influential rulers. Stupid persons, assuming the airs of experts and specialists, find it possible to exercise control over the skilled technicians.
Simply honesty is wrongly described as mere simpleness of the mind. Good people have to carry out the wishes and to obey the inclinations, of evil-minded men who dominate them. This a remarkable compression of ideas in these lines.
The thirteenth line repeats the idea of the opening line in which Shakespeare had expressed a desire to die because of his disgust with these saddening facts of life. And the fourteenth line of this sonnet expresses an entirely different idea. Here Shakespeare says that he would feel sorry to die because his death would leave his beloved friend alone behind him in the world. Thus, even while thinking of the evils of human life, Shakespeare does not forget the friend in whose honour and to please whom he has written these sonnets.
6. Sonnet 73
That time of the year thou mayst in me behold
WIKI
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou seest the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou seest the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the deathbed whereon it must expire
Consumed with that which it was nourished by.
This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.
Idea & Emotion
The poet is passing through the unhappiest time of his life. His death seems to him to be approaching. The feeling in this poem is again one of sadness, here almost of despair.
Critical Note
This poem may aptly be described as a lament. It may even be called an obituary of the poet written by himself. In any case, the poem is written in an elegiac tone.
It is evident that the poem was written during winter when it is intensely, almost unbearable, cold in England. The poet compares his desolation with the desolation of winter.
Anticipating his death, he calls upon his friend to love him even more than before because he (the poet) would soon be departing from the earth. The poem contains several vivid pictures- the yellow leaves upon the trees; the bare ruin’d choirs; the twilight of such day; and the glowing of such fire.
Each of these pictures has been used as a metaphor to convey to us an idea of the poet’s sad plight. However, the real purpose of the poet here seems to enhance his friend’s love for him.
7. Sonnet 104
To me fair friend you never can be old.
WIKI
To me, fair friend, you never can be old,
For as you were when first your eye I eyed,
Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold
Have from the forests shook three summers’ pride;
Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turned
In process of the seasons have I seen;
Three April pérfumes in three hot Junes burned,
Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green.
Ah yet doth beauty, like a dial hand,
Steal from his figure, and no pace perceived;
So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,
Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceived.
For fear of which, hear this, thou age unbred:
Ere you were born was beauty’s summer dead.
Idea & Emotion
The youth and beauty of Shakespeare’s friend can never diminish or fade in Shakespeare’s eyes.
Seasons do change, and the sweetest fragrance of the flowers of April is most certainly consumed by the burning heat of the month of June. And it is even possible that the countenance of Shakespeare’s friend may gradually and imperceptibly be undergoing a change for the worse.
Not only that. Wrinkles may already have made their appearance on his friend’s face. However, in Shakespeare’s sonnets, the youthful freshness and the smoothness of the forehead of Shakespeare’s friend would remain forever, so that the coming generations would know that, although the beauty of Shakespeare’s friend died long ago, yet it has remained intact in these sonnets.
Critical Note
The youth and beauty of Shakespeare’s friend must be declining with the passing of time, but to Shakespeare, it seems that his friend’s youth and beauty remain unchanged and are not likely to change ever. And yet Shakespeare realizes the fact that a change in the looks of a man takes place surely and undoubtedly though the change may be imperceptible to the viewers.
The sonnet ends with Shakespeare addressing the coming generations and telling them that they would never actually behold the beauty of this friend because the friend would be dead long before the coming generations would make their appearance on the earth.
Thus this sonnet deals more with the relentless passing of time and the inevitable deterioration in the looks of a human being and the eventual death which time brings about than with the theme of the youth and beauty of Shakespeare’s friend. At the same time, this sonnet contains some pretty pictures such as “three beauteous springs”, “three April perfumes,” and “beauty’s summer”. But the picture is darkened by contrast with what follows them: “three winters cold,” “yellow autumns”, “hot Junes”, and the death of beauty’s summer.
The simile which has been used, comparing the imperceptible decline in beauty to the imperceptible movement of a dial-hand is also appropriate and well-conceived. On the whole, it is one of Shakespeare’s finest sonnets both in respect of its content and its style.
8. Sonnet 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
WIKI
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Idea & Emotion
True love never undergoes a change. It is constant like the northern star which used to serve as an infallible guide to ships on the sea in olden days. True love never changes with the changing times.
Critical note
This is one of the best-known sonnets of Shakespeare. Indeed it may be reckoned among the dozen or so of the sonnets which have been acclaimed by all readers and all critics, and which have always enjoyed immense popularity and vogue. Almost every schoolboy or college student knows this sonnet well. We come across this sonnet in most of the anthologies which are prescribed as textbooks for students. The popularity of this sonnet is well deserved because it contains an idea which appeals to every reader, young or old.
True love has always been recognized as something real, although true love is the exception and false love is the rule. There is no dearth of true lovers, and cases come to our notice daily to show that true love does not exist in this world even though sceptics and cynics would deny its existence. While the main idea of this sonnet is so important and so well established, the expression of it by Shakespeare here may be described as sublime.
The language employed in this sonnet is not just appropriate but highly felicitous even though one or two lines are somewhat difficult to understand and, therefore, obscure. The following lines are not absolutely clear, though their general purpose is clear enough.
- Which alters when it alteration finds
- Or bends with the remover to remove
- Love’s not Time’s fool
On the whole, this sonnet uplifts and exalts us by virtue of both its idea and its style of writing.
9. Sonnet 129
The expense of spirit in a waste of shame
WIKI
The expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action; and till action, lust
Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust,
Enjoy’d no sooner but despised straight,
Past reason hunted, and no sooner had
Past reason hated, as a swallow’d bait
On purpose laid to make the taker mad;
Mad in pursuit and in possession so;
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;
A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe;
Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.
All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.
Idea & Emotion
Lust is by no means a source of any genuine pleasure to a man. A lustful man does yearn for his sensual gratification, but his pleasure in the sexual act ends with the act itself. Lust in common; but nobody knows how to avoid it when it brings him no real pleasure.
Critical note
Among Shakespeare’s sonnets, number 129 is an absolutely new theme. Here Shakespeare defines the nature of lust.
Lust is something different from love. The former is a desire of the flesh, while the latter is the desire of the heart. It is a longing for the gratification of sensuality, while love is a desire for a union of hearts. Indeed there is a wide gulf between lust and love. In this sonnet, Shakespeare describes only lust but does not differentiate between lust and love. However, his description of lust enables us to differentiate it from love. A lustful man yearns for sensual gratification, but this sensual gratification does not afford any real pleasure because the pleasure lasts only as long as the sexual intercourse lasts.
A man begins to feel disgusted as soon as his lust for a woman, with the sexual act, and with himself. The two closing lines contain what may be called a true truism. The whole world knows the superficial nature of sensual gratification, and yet nobody tries to avoid it or seek the means of avoiding it. In fact, lust is much more common in this world than the love which is rare.
All prostitution and debauchery, which prevails everywhere, in every big or small city of every country, whether in the east or in the west, are due to this human carving, known as lust.
10. Sonnet 130
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun
WIKI
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask’d, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
Idea & Emotion
Shakespeare finds his mistress wanting in all those attractions which are associated with beauty; and yet he thinks her to be the most beautiful woman in the world. (Thus beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder).
Critical note
Here is an unconventional kind of sonnet. Shakespeare, like every lover in this world, believes his mistress to be a most beautiful woman; and yet he is also aware of the fact that his judgement of her is contrary to what people think about her.
Certain ideas of beauty are well established. A fair complexion, redness of the lips, a lustre in the eyes, a natural mingling of red and white in the cheeks, a sweet voice, and a sweat breath are among the essential requirements of beauty in a woman.
Shakespeare’s mistress is lacking in these requirements, and yet in Shakespeare’s eyes, his mistress is an exceptionally beautiful woman. Now, it is possible that Shakespeare means literally what he has said in this sonnet; but it is also possible that Shakespeare maybe ridiculing his mistress after she had proved unfaithful to him.
Thus this sonnet may contain genuine praise by Shakespeare of his mistress in the days when she was really in love with him, or it may be a satire on that woman when she had proved disloyal to him by transferring her affections from him to his friend, the Earl of Southampton. Apart from Shakespeare’s intention, of which we cannot be sure, this sonnet is a trivial exercise.
Conclusion
A noteworthy feature of Shakespeare’s sonnets is that a wide range of human feelings is offered to us. Shakespeare’s contradictory mood lead him naturally to express a variety of feeling ranging from exaltation and tenderness to bitterness.
This article provides you with a list of 10 famous sonnets by Shakespeare. These are the ones that people are searching and reading online. What are your views of sonnets mentioned here? Did I miss to mention your favourite one? Do let me know in comments.