Shakespeare's Sonnets is the title of a collection of 154
sonnets accredited to
William Shakespeare which cover themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality. It was first published in a 1609
quarto with the full stylised title:
SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS. Never before Imprinted. (although sonnets
138 and
144 had previously been published in the 1599
miscellany The Passionate Pilgrim). The quarto ends with "
A Lover's Complaint", a narrative poem of 47 seven-line stanzas written in
rhyme royal.