The Sonnets of William Shakespeare, a cycle of 154 linked poems, were first published — that is to say, entered at Stationers' Hall by the publisher Thomas Thorpe — on 20th May 1609. This 400th-anniversary edition contains all of the poems and they deal with many of Shakespeare's most common themes: jealousy, betrayal, melancholy, and are written in the same beautiful and innovative language that we have come to know from his plays. They ache with unfulfilled longing, and for many they are the most complete and moving meditations on love ever written.