Advice on using this site.
For those who have difficulty reading
these pages because of the background colour, I suggest the following.
(Assuming you are using Internet Explorer) Click on Tools/Internet Options/(General)/Accessibility/
Tick the box for 'Ignore colours specified on Web pages'/OK/OK/. This
should convert background and text to black on white. Note that (General)
in the above list is bracketed as it is usually the default option, and
you probably will not have to click on it. Browsers other than Internet
Explorer should have similar facilities.
Alternatively click and drag with the
cursor on the left of the text. This will provide a different background
and text colour which may be preferable and easier to read.
If you know the number of the sonnet
you wish to look at, then go to any one of the three categories below,
Sonnets 1-50, 51-100 or 101-154, then follow directions from there. If
you do not know which sonnet it is you wish to look at, but you know a
line or a phrase, then do a global search using the plain text web page
listed below. Then, having identified the sonnet, return to the home page,
using the Back button on your browser and navigate from there. Alternatively,
if you know the first line of the sonnet, go straight to the first line
index listed below. If you are in difficulty, go to the Map of the site,
which should help to give you your bearings. It is worth remembering that
Google (the search engine) will often point you straight to a sonnet on
this web site even if you only know one line, or a part of it. The commentaries
(listed on the Map page) have a first line index, or else you may go direct
to the first line index from the link below. Please note: the web master
does not have time to answer homework or essay queries. Look at the page
for the sonnet you want and you might find the answer to your question.
All the sonnets are linked to individual commentaries. These have all been
revised and should be of uniform format.
Other features are regularly added
to the site and details will be posted here. See below.
If you wish to send comments relating
to material on this website, please do so by email to will@@shakespeares-sonnets.com
Please copy and paste the above and
delete one of the @s. Please put the word Query in the subject line, nothing
else. This is absolutely necessary to enable me to eliminate
most of the spam. Without the word 'Query' in the subject line your email
will be automatically deleted.
Also included are the poems of Sir
Thomas Wyatt. Notes are given for each poem, and a first line index is
provided. See below. There
is also a separate page giving access to all the Holbein
portraits used.
Also available is A Lover's Complaint,
which was printed with the Sonnets in 1609.
It is provided with notes alongside . See below.
Commentaries on the Title page and
Thorpe's Dedication are given at the head of Sonnets
1 - 50 or see below.
The millionth recorded visitor to this
home page clocked in at 16.55 GMT on 10th March 2005.
The two millionth was recorded on September 10th 2007.
JANUARY 2004
The book version (of all the text and commentaries) is currently out of
print. Click here for details.
England's Helicon, a miscellany of poems published in 1600. A small part of this work is available.
Click here for details.
PICTURE GALLERY
Picture Gallery. Containing prints not yet
used on the site. Click here
for details.
POEMS ANCIENT AND MODERN. A SELECTION
OF POEMS FOR ST. VALENTINE'S DAY.
A selection of love poems provided originally for St. Valentine's day 2003,
some previously unpublished. Additions are made from time to time. Some
new poems have been added for 2005.
Click here for details.
Plus a poem for older lovers (added
2006). Click here for details.
This page last updated 23 April 2008.