Shakespeare's sonnets, first published in 1609, have been pored over with endless fascination by critics through the centuries, raided by other writers and translated into every major living language. To read them is to be immersed in beauty. Although this pamphlet can only offer a sample (there are one hundred and fifty four sonnets altogether) each sonnet nonetheless stands alone too, full square in its fourteen lines, a small miracle. "So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee." - from Sonnet XVIII Cover illustration by Paul Bommer.