It is solid and no one is allowed to ditch their partner when they change. First, there is marriage, an institution that binds those who buy into it. Love, what is it? What is it not? These are the questions the poet tries to answer in this sonnet. Sonnet 116 - “Let me not to the marriage of true minds”

The poem ends immediately after the speaker declares that he can’t find quiet for himself, or “For thee.” The emptiness beyond the final line speaks to weariness and exhausted reverence. The last lines are very striking as well. Shakespeare uses memorable phrases such as “zealous pilgrimage” to relate the love to religious adoration.

The speaker spends the fourteen lines struggling with his thoughts of a lost love, who is for some unknown reason, far away from him. This sonnet is a haunting description of mental and emotional unrest. Sonnet 27 - “Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed”

10 Sonnet 98 - “From you have I been absent in the spring”.

9 Sonnet 29 - “When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes”.

8 Sonnet 104 - “To me, fair friend, you never can be old”.

7 Sonnet 134 - “So now I have confessed that he is thine”.

6 Sonnet 18 - “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”.

5 Sonnet 106 - “When in the chronicle of wasted time”.

4 Sonnet 129 - “The expense of spirit in a waste of shame”.

3 Sonnet 130 - “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”.

2 Sonnet 116 - “Let me not to the marriage of true minds”.

1 Sonnet 27 - “Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed”.

Shakespeare’s works influenced a generation of writers while the Bard was still alive, but to this day there are writers in every language who take direction from his pioneering style. But there are others which are less known, but equally brilliant such as “From you have I been absent in the spring” (Sonnet 98) and “The expense of spirit in a waste of shame” (Sonnet 129). A few of these, such as “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day” ( Sonnet 18) and “Let me not to the marriage of true minds” ( sonnet 116), feature on this list. Shakespeare’s sonnets, of which there are many, are some of the most popular poems in the English language. His word choices, as well as the way the rhythm and images worked together to form complex, multilayered lines that often had more than one meaning. He is known for his fluid and structured, style of writing. His works spanned thirty-seven plays, the best known of which have been performed for centuries, 154 sonnets and five longer, narrative poems. William Shakespeare is generally considered to be one of, if not the, greatest writers in the English language.

Sonnet 19 shakespeare