Sonnets Quotes

Quotes from Shakespeare's sonnets
 

Sonnet 78 and a person I know

So oft have I invoked thee for my Muse
And found such fair assistance in my verse
As every alien pen hath got my use
And under thee their poesy disperse.
Thine eyes that taught the dumb on high to sing
And heavy ignorance aloft to fly
Have added feathers to the learned's wing
And given grace a double majesty.
Yet be most proud of that which I compile,
Whose influence is thine and born of thee:
In others' works thou dost but mend the style,
And arts with thy sweet graces graced be;

Sonnet 78

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Pied April

From you have I been absent in the spring,
When proud pied April (dress'd in all his trim)
Hath put a spirit of youth in everything.

Sonnet 98

3.5
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Sonnet 14

Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck;
And yet methinks I have astronomy,
But not to tell of good or evil luck,
Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons' quality;
Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell,
Pointing to each his thunder, rain and wind,
Or say with princes if it shall go well,
By oft predict that I in heaven find:
But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive,
And, constant stars, in them I read such art
As truth and beauty shall together thrive,
If from thyself to store thou wouldst convert;
Or else of thee this I prognosticate:

William Shakespeare

4.666665
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Memory

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought

I summon up remembrance of things past,

I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,

And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:

Sonnet 30

4.25
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King and I

Haply I think on thee, and then my state,

Like to the lark at break of day arising

From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;

For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings

That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Sonnet 29

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Summer

[T]hy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st

Sonnet 18

4.5
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Mourn for me

...if you read this line, remember not

The hand that writ it, for I love you so,

That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot,

If thinking on me then should make you woe.

Sonnet 71

4.5
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The Winter of you being gone.

How like a Winter hath my absence been
From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!

Sonnet 97

4.5
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Proof of Absence

O absence, what a torment wouldst thou prove,
Where it not thy sour leisure gave sweet leave
To entertain the time with thoughts of love.

Sonnet 39

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Changes

Love is not love / Which alters when it alteration finds, / Or bends with the remover to remove.

Sonnet 116

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