My Love Sent Me a List

"Sonnet 18" by William Shakespeare (1604)

Perhaps Shakespeare’s most well-known sonnet, this poem, written for an unnamed lover, argues that the subject of the poem cannot be compared to the beauty of nature. Shakespeare runs through several natural images and presents the negative sides of them. Ultimately, Shakespeare concludes that death can no longer take his love because the poem has immortalized their beauty. This is often considered one of the most beautiful love poems ever composed.

"Sonnet 130" by William Shakespeare (1604)

Unique among Shakespeare’s love sonnets, this poem doesn’t present an idealized image of the subject. Instead, it acts almost as a contrast to “Sonnet 18” because it uses comparisons between the subject and nature to cast what seems like a negative light on the subject. Yet, at the end of the poem, Shakespeare suggests his love for the subject is rare and is not worthy of being expressed in an exaggerated style that was common in poems of his day.

"Sonnet (full-court press)" by Olena Kalytiak Davis (2014)

Another sonnet from the same collection as “My Love Sent Me a List,” this poem better follows the traditional sonnet

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