Here are 154 poems performed by by the wonderful Sir John Gielgud in this Shakepseare collection of the Sonnets.
Shakespeare's sonnets deal with such themes as the passage of time, love, beauty, and mortality. All but two of the poems were first published in a 1609 quarto entitled Shake-Speares Sonnets: Never before imprinted. Sonnets 138 and 144 had previously been published in a 1599 miscellany entitled The Passionate Pilgrim. The quarto ends with A Lover's Complaint, a narrative poem of 47 seven-line stanzas written in rhyme royal.
The first 17 sonnets, traditionally called the procreation sonnets, are ostensibly written to a young man, urging him to marry and have children in order to immortalise his beauty by passing it to the next generation. Other sonnets express the speaker's love for a young man; brood upon loneliness, death, and the transience of life; seem to criticise the young man for preferring a rival poet; express ambiguous feelings for the speaker's mistress; and pun on the poet's name. The final two sonnets are allegorical treatments of Greek epigrams referring to the little Love-god Cupid.
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"A new literary project - to learn all 154 of Shakespeare's sonnets by heart. Yes, it's both ridiculous and ambitious. And it's gonna take 3 years.Sonnets 18, 29, 116, 109, 87, 147, 94, 130, 129, 43 all in the bag.120 up next. " — Alex (5 out of 5 stars)
"A new literary project - to learn all 154 of Shakespeare's sonnets by heart. Yes, it's both ridiculous and ambitious. And it's gonna take 3 years.Sonnets 18, 29, 116, 109, 87, 147, 94, 130, 129, 43 all in the bag.120 up next. "
" Never been a big fan of shakespeare...reading this as prep for Literature CLEP test...:) "
" Supreme. Poetry at its' deepest hardcore! "
" The sonnets are, of course, gorgeous and incredible - that doesn't change no matter what edition you read.The annotations, however, do make a difference, and in the Arden sonnets they are excellent: "
" this is a great read for everyone! "
" my love is as a fever "
" He really liked to use the word love. It is interesting how he says that fire rhymes with desire.A lot of references on performance and plays too.He probably doesn't care about food. "
" Nobody writes poetry like this anymore. (Except for that guy who tried to ask me out by writing me poetry like this, and I thought he was a freak, so maybe I should eat my own words.) "
" Anyone who loves English literature needs to read a good, critical edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets (I suggest the edition edited by Stephen Booth). "
" The sonnets of William Shakespeare were inspiring, poetic, witty, and romantic. Four and a half stars. "
William Shakespeare (1564–1616), English poet and dramatist of the Elizabethan and early Jacobean period, is the most widely known author in all of English literature and often considered the greatest. He was an active member of a theater company for at least twenty years, during which time he wrote many great plays. Plays were not prized as literature at the time and Shakespeare was not widely read until the middle of the eighteenth century, when a great upsurge of interest in his works began that continues today.
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