The Sonnets

First printed in 1609, these 154 poems address a fair young man, a rival poet, and a dark-haired mistress, though the story they hint at never becomes a continuous narrative. The speaker argues with Time, praises and doubts beauty, and turns on himself in jealousy and self-disgust. Recurring images include seasons, usury, painting, and legal bonds. The sequence moves from idealizing love to more bitter and bodily poems. It is a lyric sequence, not a verse novel and not the plays.

Quarter-bound in green leather with red cloth boards. Light grey dust-jacket printed in dark green. Later impressions had a variant with advertisements for Shelley's Poems and other books. Some copies issued with silk headband. (Title page dated 1947 but not released until January 1948).