All Shakespeare Sonnets

The Sonnets are an important part of William Shakespeare's work, and often one comes across a citation of one of his sonnets, without being able to immediately pinpoint which one of the 154 sonnets it is.

There are different audios where reputed narrators or actors read William Shakespeare's Sonnets, you may listen to a sound sample of the different versions here:

Shakespeare Sonnets read by David Butler

Shakespeare Sonnets read by Alex Jennings

Shakespeare Sonnets read by Sir John Gielgud

Below is a list of all the first lines of the Bard's sonnets, and a the number of the sonnet to which this first line belongs:

Shakespeare Sonnets starting with A

A woman's face with Nature's own hand painted - Sonnet 20
Accuse me thus: that I have scanted all  - Sonnet  117
Against my love shall be, as I am now  - Sonnet 63
Against that time, if ever that time come  - Sonnet 49
Ah! wherefore with infection should he live  - Sonnet  67
Alack, what poverty my Muse brings forth  - Sonnet 103
Alas, 'tis true I have gone here and there  - Sonnet 110
As a decrepit father takes delight  - Sonnet 37
As an unperfect actor on the stage  - Sonnet  23
As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou growest  - Sonnet  11

Shakespeare Sonnets starting with B

Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press  - Sonnet 140
Being your slave, what should I do but tend  - Sonnet  57
Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan  - Sonnet  133
Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took  - Sonnet 47
But be contented: when that fell arrest - Sonnet 74
But do thy worst to steal thyself away  - Sonnet  92
But wherefore do not you a mightier way  - Sonnet  16

Shakespeare Sonnets starting with C

Canst thou, O cruel! say I love thee not - Sonnet 149
Cupid laid by his brand, and fell asleep - Sonnet 153

Shakespeare Sonnets starting with D

Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws - Sonnet 19

Shakespeare Sonnets starting with F

Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing   - Sonnet  87
For shame! deny that thou bear'st love to any  - Sonnet  10
From fairest creatures we desire increase  - Sonnet  1
From you have I been absent in the spring  - Sonnet  98
Full many a glorious morning have I seen  - Sonnet  33

Shakespeare Sonnets starting with H

How can I then return in happy plight  - Sonnet  28
How can my Muse want subject to invent  - Sonnet  38
How careful was I, when I took my way  - Sonnet   48
How heavy do I journey on the way  - Sonnet 50
How like a winter hath my absence been  - Sonnet 97
How oft, when thou, my music, music play'st  - Sonnet  128
How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame  - Sonnet  95

Shakespeare Sonnets starting with I

I grant thou wert not married to my Muse  - Sonnet   82
I never saw that you did painting need  - Sonnet  83
If my dear love were but the child of state  - Sonnet  124
If the dull substance of my flesh were thought  - Sonnet  44
If there be nothing new, but that which is  - Sonnet  59
If thou survive my well-contented day  - Sonnet 32
If thy soul check thee that I come so near  - Sonnet  136
In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes  - Sonnet  141
In loving thee thou know'st I am forsworn  - Sonnet 152
In the old days black was not counted fair  - Sonnet  127
Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye  - Sonnet 9
Is it thy will thy image should keep open  - Sonnet  61

Shakespeare Sonnets starting with L

Let me confess that we two must be twain  - Sonnet  36
Let me not to the marriage of true minds  - Sonnet  116
Let not my love be call'd idolatry  - Sonnet  105
Let those who are in favour with their stars  - Sonnet 25
Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore - Sonnet 60
Like as to make our appetites more keen  - Sonnet  118
Lo! as a careful housewife runs to catch  - Sonnet  143
Lo! in the orient when the gracious light  - Sonnet  7
Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest  - Sonnet 3
Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage  - Sonnet  26
Love is my sin and thy dear virtue hate  - Sonnet  142
Love is too young to know what conscience is  - Sonnet  151

Shakespeare Sonnets starting with M

Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war  - Sonnet  46
Mine eye hath play'd the painter and hath stell'd  - Sonnet 24
Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly  - Sonnet 8
My glass shall not persuade me I am old  - Sonnet  22
My love is as a fever, longing still  - Sonnet  147
My love is strengthen'd, though more weak in seeming  - Sonnet 102
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun  - Sonnet 130
My tongue-tied Muse in manners holds her still  - Sonnet  85

Shakespeare Sonnets starting with N

No longer mourn for me when I am dead  - Sonnet 71
No more be grieved at that which thou hast done  - Sonnet 35
No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change  - Sonnet 123
Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck  - Sonnet  14
Not marble, nor the gilded monuments  - Sonnet  55
Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul  - Sonnet  107

Shakespeare Sonnets starting with O

O me, what eyes hath Love put in my head  - Sonnet 148
O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power  - Sonnet  126
O truant Muse, what shall be thy amends  - Sonnet  101
O, call not me to justify the wrong  - Sonnet  139
O, for my sake do you with Fortune chide  - Sonnet  111
O, from what power hast thou this powerful might  - Sonnet  150
O, how I faint when I of you do write  - Sonnet  80
O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem  - Sonnet 54
O, how thy worth with manners may I sing  - Sonnet  39
O, lest the world should task you to recite  - Sonnet  72
O, never say that I was false of heart  - Sonnet  109
O, that you were yourself! but, love, you are  - Sonnet  13
Or I shall live your epitaph to make  - Sonnet  81
Or whether doth my mind, being crown'd with you  - Sonnet  114

Shakespeare Sonnets starting with P

Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth - Sonnet 146

Shakespeare Sonnets starting with S

Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault  - Sonnet 89
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day  - Sonnet  18
Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye  - Sonnet  62
Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea  - Sonnet  65
Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind  - Sonnet  113
So am I as the rich, whose blessed key  - Sonnet  52
So are you to my thoughts as food to life  - Sonnet  75
So is it not with me as with that Muse  - Sonnet  21
So oft have I invoked thee for my Muse  - Sonnet  78
So shall I live, supposing thou art true  - Sonnet  93
So, now I have confessed that he is thine  - Sonnet 134
Some glory in their birth, some in their skill  - Sonnet  91
Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness  - Sonnet  96
Sweet love, renew thy force; be it not said  - Sonnet  56

Shakespeare Sonnets starting with T

Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all  - Sonnet 40
That god forbid that made me first your slave  - Sonnet  58
That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect  - Sonnet  70
That thou hast her, it is not all my grief  - Sonnet  42
That time of year thou mayst in me behold  - Sonnet 73
That you were once unkind befriends me now  - Sonnet 120
The expense of spirit in a waste of shame  - Sonnet  129
The forward violet thus did I chide  - Sonnet  99
The little Love-god lying once asleep  - Sonnet 154
The other two, slight air and purging fire  - Sonnet  45
Then hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now  - Sonnet  90
Then let not winter's ragged hand deface  - Sonnet  6
They that have power to hurt and will do none  - Sonnet  94
Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me  - Sonnet 132
Those hours, that with gentle work did frame  - Sonnet  5
Those lines that I before have writ do lie  - Sonnet  115
Those lips that Love's own hand did make  - Sonnet  145
Those parts of thee that the world's eye doth view  - Sonnet  69
Those pretty wrongs that liberty commits  - Sonnet  41
Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art  - Sonnet   131
Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes  - Sonnet  137
Thus can my love excuse the slow offence  - Sonnet  51
Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn  - Sonnet  68
Thy bosom is endeared with all hearts  - Sonnet  31
Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain  - Sonnet 122
Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear  - Sonnet  77
Tired with all these, for restful death I cry  - Sonnet  66
'Tis better to be vile than vile esteem'd  - Sonnet 121
To me, fair friend, you never can be old  - Sonnet  104
Two loves I have of comfort and despair  - Sonnet  144

Shakespeare Sonnets starting with U

Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend - Sonnet 4

Shakespeare Sonnets starting with W

Was it the proud full sail of his great verse  - Sonnet  86
Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed  - Sonnet  27
Were 't aught to me I bore the canopy  - Sonnet  125
What is your substance, whereof are you made  - Sonnet  53
What potions have I drunk of Siren tears  - Sonnet  119
What's in the brain that ink may character  - Sonnet  108
When forty winters shall beseige thy brow  - Sonnet  2
When I consider every thing that grows  - Sonnet  15
When I do count the clock that tells the time  - Sonnet  12
When I have seen by Time's fell hand defaced  - Sonnet  64
When in the chronicle of wasted time  - Sonnet  106
When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see  - Sonnet  43
When my love swears that she is made of truth  - Sonnet  138
When thou shalt be disposed to set me light  - Sonnet  88
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought  - Sonnet  30
When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes  - Sonnet  29
Where art thou, Muse, that thou forget'st so long  - Sonnet 100
Whilst I alone did call upon thy aid  - Sonnet  79
Who is it that says most? which can say more  - Sonnet  84
Who will believe my verse in time to come  - Sonnet  17
Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy 'Will'  - Sonnet  135
Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day - Sonnet 34
Why is my verse so barren of new pride  - Sonnet  76