The Complete Sonnets
Shakespeare’s sonnets are some of the most beautiful, heart-felt love poetry ever-written. The term “sonnet” derives from the Italian word sonetto meaning “little song”. By the thirteenth century, it had come to signify a poem of fourteen lines that follows a strict rhyme scheme and specific structure. Shakespeare’s Sonnets were probably written over a period of several years but all 154 poems appeared in a 1609 collection.