Resumen
Resumen de Sonetos de Shakespeare
Para quién es
For readers who love reading love poetry aloud, a few poems at a time, and exploring how English verse works. These poems invite anyone drawn to beauty, jealousy, forgiveness and the hope that art can outlast a life.
De qué trata este libro
Shakespeare's Sonnets is a sequence of 154 poems by William Shakespeare. They were printed in London in 1609, though some had been written years earlier, probably in the 1590s, and a few were passed around among friends. The poems speak in the first person. A speaker praises a beautiful young man, burns with desire for a dark-haired woman, and keeps asking what time does to everything we love.
You get some of the most compact thinking about love in English. Each poem is short enough to hold in the mind, yet each builds an argument, bends it, and settles it in a closing couplet. Across the whole sequence you meet jealousy, shame, flattery, forgiveness and the hope that verse can outlast a body. Let us begin with the book itself, how it was made and how it is arranged.
En este resumen
- 1A sequence printed in 1609, still puzzlingFree
- 2The young man is urged to have children
- 3Betrayal and a rival poet shake the friendship
- 4The dark lady brings desire without comfort
- 5Form, images and sound carry the meaning
- 6Read slowly and aloud to find the themes
Idea clave 1 de 6
A sequence printed in 1609, still puzzling
The Sonnets first appeared in a small book published by Thomas Thorpe in 1609. Whether Shakespeare oversaw the printing is still debated. The book carries a short dedication to a person named only as Mr. W.H., called the only begetter of the poems. Nobody has settled who that was, and guesses have filled many books.
The book holds 154 poems in a set order. The first 126 speak mostly to a young man. Poems 127 to 152 turn to a woman often called the dark lady, because her hair and eyes are described as black. The last two poems are light, playful pieces about the god Cupid and a spring that his torch heated.
A reader soon feels that a story hides behind the poems. A friendship begins, grows warm, is hurt by betrayal and is mended. A love affair is bitter from the start. Yet the poems never name the people clearly or give dates, so the story stays a set of hints. Scholars still argue whether the order is Shakespeare's own, and whether the speaker is Shakespeare or a made-up voice.
That uncertainty is part of the pleasure. You do not need a biography to follow the feelings, because each poem gives its own situation. A poem may open with a plea, a complaint or a compliment, and you can take it in on its own. Reading in order, though, lets the moods build and echo, and that is how the book reads best.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 18,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 1 h 15 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 13 other languages
Questions about Sonetos de Shakespeare
What are Shakespeare's Sonnets about?
They are about love, beauty, desire and the passing of time. A speaker praises a young man, struggles with desire for a dark-haired woman, and keeps claiming that his poems can outlast death and decay.
Who is the dark lady in Shakespeare's Sonnets?
She is the woman addressed in poems 127 to 152, called dark for her black hair and eyes. Her identity is unknown, and scholars still disagree whether she was a real person.
Who is Mr. W.H. in the dedication?
The 1609 edition is dedicated to Mr. W.H., called the only begetter of the poems. No one knows who he was. Guesses include a patron, a friend and a printer's error, but none is proven.
How many sonnets did Shakespeare write and how are they arranged?
There are 154 sonnets. The first 126 are mostly addressed to a young man, poems 127 to 152 to a dark lady, and the last two are playful poems about Cupid.
Are Shakespeare's Sonnets hard to read?
Each poem is short and its feeling is clear. Reading aloud and starting with famous ones such as Sonnet 18 makes it easy.