Geen schrijver heeft wellicht zoveel literair aanzien als William Shakespeare, van wie we 37 toneelstukken bezitten, waaronder HAMLET en KING LEAR en ROMEO AND JULIET en OTHELLO.. én 154 SONNETTEN.

Wie gebruikt er wel eens niet een versje of versdeeltje dat van hem is? WHAT’S IN A NAME, PARTING IS SUCH A SWEET SORROW, TO BE OR NOT TO BE THAT IS THE QUESTION, LOVE IS BLIND, UNEASY LIES THE HEAD THAT WEARS A CROWN?

Hieronder volgt nog SONNET 18…

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st.

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.