Index of First Lines
Below is an index of the first lines of each Shakespeare Sonnet, listed alphabetically. Click on a highlighted link to watch a video reading of the selected sonnet. The text used in each YouTube video is from the original 1609 Quarto Edition.
Shakespeare’s Sonnets: Alphabetic Index of First Lines
Sonnet #20 “A woman’s face with Nature’s own hand painted”
Sonnet #117 “Accuse me thus: that I have scanted all”
Sonnet #63 “Against my love shall be, as I am now”
Sonnet #49 “Against that time, if ever that time come”
Sonnet #67 “Ah, wherefore with infection should he live”
Sonnet #103 “Alack, what poverty my muse brings forth”
Sonnet #110 “Alas, ’tis true, I have gone here and there”
Sonnet #37 “As a decrepit father takes delight”
Sonnet #23 “As an unperfect actor on the stage”
Sonnet #11 “As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou grow’st”
Sonnet #140 “Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press”
Sonnet #57 “Being your slave, what should I do but tend”
Sonnet #133 “Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan”
Sonnet #47 “Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took”
Sonnet #74 “But be contented when that fell arrest”
Sonnet #92 “But do thy worst to steal thyself away”
Sonnet #16 “But wherefore do not you a mightier way”
Sonnet #149 “Canst thou, O cruel, say I love thee not”
Sonnet #153 “Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep”
Sonnet #19: “Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion’s paws”
Sonnet #87 “Farewell, thou art too dear for my possessing”
Sonnet #10 “For shame deny that thou bear’st love to any”
Sonnet #1 “From fairest creatures we desire increase”
Sonnet #98 “From you have I been absent in the spring”
Sonnet #33 “Full many a glorious morning have I seen”
Sonnet #28 “How can I then return in happy plight”
Sonnet #38 “How can my muse want subject to invent”
Sonnet #48 “How careful was I, when I took my way”
Sonnet #50 “How heavy do I journey on the way”
Sonnet #97 “How like a winter hath my absence been”
Sonnet #128 “How oft, when thou, my music, music play’st”
Sonnet #95 “How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame”
Sonnet #82 “I grant thou wert not married to my muse”
Sonnet #83 “I never saw that you did painting need”
Sonnet #124 “If my dear love were but the child of state”
Sonnet #44 “If the dull substance of my flesh were thought”
Sonnet #59 “If there be nothing new, but that which is”
Sonnet #32 “If thou survive my well-contented day”
Sonnet #136 “If thy soul check thee that I come so near”
Sonnet #141 “In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes”
Sonnet #152 “In loving thee thou knows’t I am forsworn”
Sonnet #127 “In the old age, black was not counted fair”
Sonnet #9 “Is it for fear to wet a widow’s eye”
Sonnet #61 “Is it thy will thy image should keep open”
Sonnet #36 “Let me confess that we two must be twain”
Sonnet #116 “Let me not to the marriage of true minds”
Sonnet #105 “Let not my love be called idolatry”
Sonnet #25 “Let those who are in favor with their stars”
Sonnet #60 “Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore”
Sonnet #118 “Like as to make our appetites more keen”
Sonnet #143 “Lo, as a careful huswife runs to catch”
Sonnet #7 “Lo, in the orient when the gracious light”
Sonnet #3 “Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest”
Sonnet #26 “Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage”
Sonnet #142 “Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate”
Sonnet #151 “Love is too young to know what conscience is”
Sonnet #46 “Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war”
Sonnet #24 “Mine eye hath played the painter and hath stelled”
Sonnet #8 “Music to hear, why hear’st thou music sadly”
Sonnet #22 “My glass shall not persuade me I am old”
Sonnet #147 “My love is as a fever, longing still”
Sonnet #102 “My love is strengthened, though more weak in seeming”
Sonnet #130 “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”
Sonnet #85 “My tongue-tied muse in manners holds her still”
Sonnet #71 “No longer mourn for me when I am dead”
Sonnet #35 “No more be grieved at that which thou hast done”
Sonnet #123 “No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change”
Sonnet #14 “Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck”
Sonnet #55 “Not marble nor the gilded monuments”
Sonnet #107 “Not mine own fears nor the prophetic soul”
Sonnet #126 “O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power”
Sonnet #101 “O truant muse, what shall be thy amends”
Sonnet #139 “O, call not me to justify the wrong”
Sonnet #111 “O, for my sake do you with Fortune chide”
Sonnet #150 “O, from what power hast thou this powerful might”
Sonnet #80 “O, how I faint when I of you do write”
Sonnet #54 “O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem”
Sonnet #39 “O, how thy worth with manners may I sing”
Sonnet #72 “O, lest the world should task you to recite”
Sonnet #148 “O me, what eyes hath love put in my head”
Sonnet #109 “O, never say that I was false of heart”
Sonnet #13 “O, that you were your self! But, love, you are”
Sonnet #81 “Or I shall live your epitaph to make”
Sonnet #114 “Or whether doth my mind, being crowned with you”
Sonnet #146 “Poor soul, the center of my sinful earth”
Sonnet #89 “Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault”
Sonnet #18 “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day”
Sonnet #62 “Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye”
Sonnet #65 “Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea”
Sonnet #113 “Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind”
Sonnet #52 “So am I as the rich whose blessed key”
Sonnet #75 “So are you to my thoughts as food to life”
Sonnet #21 “So it is not with me as with that muse”
Sonnet #134 “So, now have I confessed that he is thine”
Sonnet #78 “So oft have I invoked thee for my muse”
Sonnet #93 “So shall I live, supposing thou art true”
Sonnet #91 “Some glory in their birth, some in their skill”
Sonnet #96 “Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness”
Sonnet #56 “Sweet love, renew thy force. Be it not said”
Sonnet #40 “Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all”
Sonnet #58 “That god forbid, that made me first your slave”
Sonnet #70 “That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect”
Sonnet #42 “That thou hast her, it is not all my grief”
Sonnet #73 “That time of year thou mayst in me behold”
Sonnet #120 “That you were once unkind befriends me now”
Sonnet #129 “Th’ expense of spirit in a waste of shame”
Sonnet #99 “The forward violet thus did I chide”
Sonnet #154 “The little love-god, lying once asleep”
Sonnet #45 “The other two, slight air and purging fire”
Sonnet #90 “Then hate me when thou wilt, if ever, now”
Sonnet #6 “Then let not winter’s ragged hand deface”
Sonnet #94 “They that have power to hurt and will do none”
Sonnet #132 “Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me”
Sonnet #5 “Those hours that with gentle work did frame”
Sonnet #115 “Those lines that I before have writ do lie”
Sonnet #145 “Those lips that Love’s own hand did make”
Sonnet #69 “Those parts of thee that the world’s eye doth view”
Sonnet #41 “Those pretty wrongs that liberty commits”
Sonnet #131 “Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art”
Sonnet #137 “Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes”
Sonnet #51 “Thus can my love excuse the slow offense”
Sonnet #68 “Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn”
Sonnet #31 “Thy bosom is endeared with all hearts”
Sonnet #122 “Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain”
Sonnet #77 “Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear”
Sonnet #66 “Tired with all these, for restful death I cry”
Sonnet #121 “‘Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed”
Sonnet #104 “To me, fair friend, you never can be old”
Sonnet #144 “Two loves I have, of comfort and despair”
Sonnet #4 “Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend”
Sonnet #86 “Was it the proud full sail of his great verse”
Sonnet #27 “Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed”
Sonnet #125 “Were ‘t aught to me I bore the canopy”
Sonnet #53 “What is your substance, whereof are you made”
Sonnet #119 “What potions have I drunk of siren tears”
Sonnet #108 “What’s in the brain that ink may character”
Sonnet #2 “When forty winters shall besiege thy brow”
Sonnet #15 “When I consider everything that grows”
Sonnet #12 “When I do count the clock that tells the time”
Sonnet #64 “When I have seen by Time’s fell hand defaced”
Sonnet #29 “When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes”
Sonnet #106 “When in the chronicle of wasted time”
Sonnet #43 “When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see”
Sonnet #138 “When my love swears that she is made of truth”
Sonnet #88 “When thou shalt be disposed to set me light”
Sonnet #30 “When to the sessions of sweet silent thought”
Sonnet #100 “Where art thou, muse, that thou forget’st so long”
Sonnet #79 “Whilst I alone did call upon thy aid”
Sonnet #84 “Who is it that says most, which can say more”
Sonnet #17 “Who will believe my verse in time to come”
Sonnet #135 “Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy will”
Sonnet #34 “Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day”
Sonnet #76 “Why is my verse so barren of new pride”
Sonnet #112 “Your love and pity doth th’ impression fill”