Defining the word poem isn’t that simple. Basically, it’s any collection of written or spoken words that have some sort of lyrical quality, rhythm, and/or structure that’s less straightforward than a ...

Guest columnist Beth Ann Fennelly analyzes Shakespeare's Sonnet 29 for its enduring relevance. The sonnet describes a speaker's journey from self-pity and envy to finding joy through love. Shakespeare ...

A few days ago, I played a little trick on the internet, asking people to name and date a sonnet, whose first few lines I gave as: “Whenne I was ruined by Love, I tooke a Vow / That if I loved againe, ...

This week's poem comes from a collection of sonnets, songs, pastorals, elegies and epigrams by the newly-rediscovered Elizabethan poet, Robert Sidney. It's untitled, but numbered "Sonnet 30", and ...

Commonly, auditions require contrasting one-minute classical and contemporary monologues. Shakespeare’s well-known speeches remain stalwarts of dramatic literature, and for good reason. However, how ...

Shakespeare’s sonnets are considered some of the literary genius' most popular works, with some - such as Sonnet 18’s “Shall I compare thee to a summer's day” - becoming the best-known works in ...

This poem appears to have been the first attempt that Burns made at sonnet writing. The sonnet, popularised in English by Shakespeare, is a fourteen-line poem. The subject matter is the verse form ...

This Valentine’s Day English Lesson is aimed at key stage 3 and key stage 4. In the lesson, students will learn about the history of Valentine’s Day, consider Shakespeare’s sonnets and iambic ...

I AM not, as I am open to confess, much interested in the eternal debate as to who is the ‘man right fair ’ and who the ‘woman colour’d ill’ of Shakespeare’s sonnets. There is another question, ...