8/17/2019 The Sonnets Shakespeare

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  The Sonnets are Shakespeare's most popular works, and a few of them, such as Sonnet 18

(Shall I compare thee to a summer's day), Sonnet 116 (Let me not to the marriae of true

minds), and Sonnet !" (That time of year thou mayst in me #ehold), ha$e #ecome the most

widely%read poems in all of &nlish literature

omposition ate of the Sonnets

Shakespeare wrote 1*+ sonnets, likely composed o$er an etended period from 1*-. to 1*-8,

the year in which /rancis 0eres referred to Shakespeare's sured sonnets2

SONNET 29

3hen, in disrace with fortune and men's eyes,

I all alone #eweep my outcast state,

4nd trou#le deaf hea$en with my #ootless cries,

4nd look upon myself, and curse my fate,

3ishin me like to one more rich in hope,

/eatur'd like him, like him with friends possess'd,

esirin this man's art and that man's scope,

3ith what I most en5oy contented least

7et in these thouhts myself almost despisin,

aply I think on thee, and then my state,

Like to the lark at #reak of day arisin

/rom sullen earth, sins hymns at hea$en's ate

/or thy sweet lo$e remem#er'd such wealth #rinsThat then I scorn to chane my state with kins