The Sonnets

Each sonnet is presented with guidance to assist the reader to make his or her own personal response. Help is given with imagery and other features of language, and the editor has included a wide range of classroom-tested activities for individual and group work. This edition aims to give students access to the multiple meanings and responses which each sonnet can evoke, and so discover Shakespeare's delight in language and exploration of personal feeling.

What is a sonnet?; Introducing The Sonnets; Title page: 1609 edition; Dedications: 1609 edition; The sonnets; The sonnet tradition; Themes: love, time and poetry; The language of The Sonnets; Links with the plays; Studying The Sonnets; Index of first lines; William Shakespeare.