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.

Bound in quarter green leather with red cloth boards. Grey slipcase or pale grey dust-jacket printed in dark green.