The sonnets are traditionally divided into two major groups: the fair lord sonnets (1-126) and the dark lady sonnets (127-154). The fair lord sonnets explore the narrator's consuming infatuation with a young and beautiful man, while the dark lady sonnets engage his lustful desire for a woman who is not his wife. The narrator is tormented as he struggles to reconcile the uncontrollable urges of his heart with his mind's better judgment, all the while in a desperate race against time.

The sonnets begin with the narrator's petition to the fair lord, exhorting him to preserve his beauty for future generations by passing it on to a child. This theme is developed until sonnet 18, where the narrator abandons it in favor of an alternative plan to…

Read the full Shakespeare's Sonnets Summary

• Shakespeare's Sonnets Summary
• About Shakespeare's Sonnets
• Character List
• Glossary of Terms
• Major Themes
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 1 - "From fairest creatures we desire increase"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 18 - "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 20 - "A woman's face with Nature's own hand painted"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 30 - "When to the sessions of sweet silent thought"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 52 - "So am I as the rich, whose blessed key"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 60 - "Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 73 - "That time of year thou mayst in me behold"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 87 - "Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 94 - "They that have power to hurt and will do none"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 116 - "Let me not to the marriage of true minds"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 126 - "O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 129 - "The expense of spirit in a waste of shame"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 130 - "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 146 - "Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 153 - "Cupid laid by his brand, and fell asleep"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 3 - "Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 5 - "Those hours, that with gentle work did frame"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 6 - "Then let not winter's ragged hand deface"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 9 - "Is it for fear to wet a window's eye"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 12 - "When I do count the clock that tells the time"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 15 - "When I consider every thing that grows"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 16 - "But wherefore do you not a mighter way"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 19 - "Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws,"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 27 - "Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 28 - "How can I then return in happy plight,"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 29 - "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 33 - "Full many a glorious morning have I seen"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 34 - "Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 35 - "No more be grieved at that which thou hast done"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 39 - "O! how they worth with manners may I sing"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 42 - "That thou hast her it is not all my grief"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 46 - "Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 54 - "O! how much more doth beauty beauteous seem"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 55 - "Not marble, nor the gilded monuments"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 57 - "Being your slave what should I do but tend"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 65 - "Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 69 - "Those parts of thee that the world's eye doth view"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 71 - "No longer mourn for me when I am dead"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 76 - "Why is my verse so barren of new pride"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 77 - "Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 85 - "My tongue-tied Muse in manners holds her still"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 90 - "Then hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now;"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 99 - "The forward violet thus did I chide"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 102 - "My love is strengthened, though more weak in seeming"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 106 - "When in the chronicle of wasted time"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 108 - "What's in the brain, that ink may character"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 110 - "Alas! 'tis true, I have gone here and there"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 113 - "Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 115 - "Those lines that I before have writ do lie"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 119 - "What potions have I drunk of Siren tears"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 123 - "No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 125 - "Were't aught to me I bore the canopy"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 132 - "Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me,"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 135 - "Whoever hath her wish, thou hast they Will"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 137 - "Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes"
• Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 149 - "Canst thou, O cruel! say I love thee not"
• The Art of the Shakespearean Sonnet
• A Note on the Pronunciation of Early Modern English
• Related Links on Shakespeare's Sonnets
• Suggested Essay Questions
• Test Yourself! - Quiz 1
• Test Yourself! - Quiz 2
• Test Yourself! - Quiz 3
• Test Yourself! - Quiz 4
• Author of ClassicNote and Sources

• Shakespeare's Sonnets: Major Themes
• Shakespeare's Sonnets: Essays
• Shakespeare's Sonnets: E-Text
• Shakespeare's Sonnets: Questions
• Shakespeare's Sonnets: Purchase the Novel and Related Material
• William Shakespeare: Biography