
William Shakespeare
Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
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;
Speech: “To be, or not to be, that is the question”
(from Hamlet, spoken by Hamlet)
To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Sonnet 130 My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun
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
Fidele
AR no more the heat o' the sun, Nor the furious winter's rages;
Thou thy worldly task hast done, Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages:
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust
The Dark Lady Sonnets 127 - 154
In the old age black was not counted fair,
Or if it were, it bore not beauty's name;
But now is black beauty's successive heir,
And beauty slandered with a bastard shame:
Winter
When icicles hang by the wall And Dick the shepherd blows his nail And Tom bears logs into the hall,
And milk comes frozen home in pail,
When Blood is nipped and ways be foul,
Then nightly sings the staring owl,
Fairy Land III
Come unto these yellow sands,
And then take hands:
Court'sied when you have, and kiss'd,— The wild waves whist,— Foot it featly here and there;
And, sweet sprites, the burthen bear
Sonnet 30 When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
When to the sessions of sweet silent thoughtI summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear times' waste;
Then can I drown an eye, unus'd to flow,
To be or not to be that is the question
To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of
Under The Greenwood Tree
Under the greenwood tree Who loves to lie with me, And turn his merry note Unto the sweet bird's throat, Come hither, come hither, come hither: Here shall he see No enemy But winter and rough weather
Who doth ambition shun, And loves to live ...
The Procreation Sonnets 1 - 17
The Procreation Sonnets are grouped together because they all address the same young man, and all encourage him — with a variety of themes and arguements — to marry and father children (hence 'procreation')
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A Lovers Complaint
OM off a hill whose concave womb reworded A plaintful story from a sistering vale, My spirits to attend this double voice accorded, And down I laid to list the sad-tuned tale; Ere long espied a fickle maid full pale, Tearing of papers, breaking ri...