Sonnets

by William Shakespeare

Overview

William Shakespeare's sonnet was first published in 1609. Its structure and form are a typical example of the Shakespearean sonnet. This sonnet attempts to define love, by telling both what it is and is not. In the first quatrain, the speaker says that love-" the marriage of true minds"-is perfect and unchanging; it does not "admit impediments," and it does not change when it finds changes in the loved one. Over the course of Sonnet 116, the speaker makes several passionate claims about what love is-and what it isn't. For the speaker (traditionally assumed to be Shakespeare himself, and thus a man), true love doesn't change over time: instead, it goes on with the same intensity forever.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789354627347
Publisher:	True Sign Publishing House
Publication date:	01/01/2022
Pages:	82
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.20(d)
Age Range:	12 Years

About the Author

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, in 1564. The date of his birth is not known but is traditionally 23 April, St George's Day. Aged 18, he married a Stratford farmer's daughter, Anne Hathaway. They had three children. Around 1585 William joined an acting troupe on tour in Stratford from London, and thereafter spent much of his life in the capital. A member of the leading theatre group in London, the Chamberlain's Men, which built the Globe Theatre and frequently performed in front of Queen Elizabeth I, Shakespeare wrote 36 plays and much poetry besides. He died in 1616.

Date of Death:

2018

Place of Birth:

Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

Place of Death:

Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

Read an Excerpt

106
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "The Sonnets"
by .
Copyright © 2017 William Shakespeare.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

List of illustrations     vi
Preface     vii
List of abbreviations and conventions     viii
Introduction   Stephen Orgel     1
Note on the text     23
The Sonnets     25
The Commentary     104
Textual analysis     258
Manuscript copies of the Sonnets     268
Reading list     272
Index of first lines     274

Editorial Reviews

Octavo continues to provide digital access to rare and important literary works. Only 13 originals survive of Shakespeare's Sonnets, Never Before Imprinted, first published in London in 1609. This disc provides page-by-page views from the quarto held in the Grenville collection of The British Library. The 154 sonnets, plus an 11-page poem, "A Lover's Complaint," appear in the typeface of the day. The images are accompanied by a text commentary by Arthur Freeman, with notes on the binding and collation, provenance, and viewing tips. One continuous PDF holds it all, and Adobe Acrobat tabs must be used to maneuver through the document. While this arrangement makes individual word search and copy-and-paste possible, navigation is not without its challenges. A specific sonnet cannot be located quickly unless one enters its number into a simple search. And because the volume was rebound and thickened with extra sheets during Thomas Grenville's ownership, 42 of the 116 views are of blank pages. Academics and archivists may delight in such primary-source integrity; unwary researchers will be frustrated when they find themselves lost in the midst of the void. Sonnets can be purchased at a discount when bundled with Octavo's similar CD-ROMs of Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories and Tragedies and Poems. Bottom Line Recommended for scholars, archivists, collectors, and academic and special libraries that serve those patrons. For casual readers, existing publications, such as Helen Vendler's The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets (1997), which includes facsimiles of the 1609 prints of each sonnet along with analysis, should suffice.-Corinne H. Smith, Ware, MA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

"The great master who knew everything . . . an unspeakable source of delight."  —Charles Dickens

From the Publisher

Rich in melody and wordplay, Shakespeare’s sonnets are, of all his work, the best-suited to audio production--while also the most demanding in vocal delivery and interpretation. Woven through the sonnets, though in no organized or consecutive manner, is the most amazing personal story, a love triangle that’s funny, shocking and weird--baring, or seeming to, the author’s most intimate secrets. John Gielgud’s slightly abridged two-CD WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: THE SONNETS, recorded for Caedmon in 1963, is still a standard, and an excellent choice for students. D.W. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine

APR/MAY 00 - AudioFile