The Sonnets

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William Shakespeare

Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2011; originally published 1609, English

Poetry

ISBN: 9780230290419

From the Publisher. T.S. Eliot once wrote that, "Shakespeare gives the greatest width of human passion," and it is this passion that has traditionally made The Sonnets appealing to literati and laymen alike. Surrounded by mystery, these poems of devotion and jealousy, of a young courtier and a Dark Lady, have been the subject of endless speculation. They are highly mystical and at the same time highly honest; as W. H. Auden wrote, “...what is astonishing about the sonnets, especially when one remembers the age in which they were written, is the impression they make of naked autobiographical confession.”

Because they are witty, passionate, personal, and often ever bawdy, The Sonnets stand as one of the greatest poetic tributes ever written to a beloved.

On 2 book lists

Zack McKown

On Zack McKown’s Book List

If they could be made three-dimensional, Shakespeare’s writings would undoubtedly form some of the most beautiful sculpture of all time. But it was the message alone, of his Sonnets, that moved me as a young man as nothing else I had ever read. Shakespeare’s anguished pleadings to a loved one he had lost (or could never have) to marry and have children so that the world could know more of him, revealed a love more powerful and selfless than any that I had ever heard expressed.

Isaac Mizrahi

On Isaac Mizrahi’s Book List

This is the only poetry I read to myself. All other poetry requires someone reading to me.

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