"Together with A Lover's Complaint' and little-known alternative versions of four of the sonnets. Edited with an introduction by John Hollander. ...the most beautifully printed text available.'"--

In detailed commentaries on Shakespeare's 154 sonnets, the author reveals previously unperceived imaginative and stylistic features of the poems, pointing out not only new levels of import in particular lines, but also the ways in which the four parts of each sonnet work together to enact emotion and create dynamic effect.

Complete Sonnets is a collection of 154 poems written by William Shakespeare, first published in 1609. They are considered to be the greatest sonnets and poems ever written, by the greatest poet and playwright in the English language. This powerful, thought-provoking collection is for anyone interested in exploring the themes of love, desire, and the human condition. Over 150 deal with love, friendship, death, the passage of time, and the nature of...

"An approachable and indispensable guide to Shakespeare's sonnets Shakespeare's sonnets are the greatest single work of lyric poetry in English, as passionate, daring, intimate, and moving as any love poems we may encounter. And yet, they are often misunderstood--as W. H. Auden remarked, "more nonsense has been talked and written, more intellectual and emotional energy expended in vain, on the sonnets of Shakespeare than on any other literary work...

Breathing, you invisible poem! World-space in pure continuous interchange with my own being. Equipose in which I rhythmically transpire. Written only four years before Rilke's death, this sequence of sonnets, varied in form yet consistently structured, stands as the poet's final masterwork. In these meditations on the constant flux of our world and the ephemerality of experience, Rilke envisions death not only as one among many of life's transformations...

Eléna Rivera is a poet and translator. She is the author of The Perforated Map and Unknowne Land, and her poems have appeared in the Nation, Denver Quarterly, the New York Times, and many other publications. Her translation of Bernard Noël's The Rest of the Voyage won the Robert Fagles Translation Prize. She was born in Mexico City, spent her childhood in Paris, and now lives in New York City. A remarkable sequence of sonnets that reflect contemporary...

"Shakespeare's sonnets are indisputably the most enigmatic and enduring love poems written in English. They also may be the most often argued-over sequence of love poems in any language to date. But what is it that continues to elude us? While it is in part the spellbinding incantations, the hide-and-seek of sound and meaning, it is also the mystery of the noble youth to whom he makes a promise -- the promise that he will survive in the breath and...