The English-Speaking Union National Shakespeare Competition
2015 SUGGESTED SONNETS LIST
Below are some sonnets suggested by The English-Speaking Union’s Education Department. Remember that only students
representing their school at their local English-Speaking Union Branch Competition must perform a sonnet. Students can select a
sonnet from this list or choose their own selection from Shakespeare’s 154 sonnet cycle. Text can be taken from any edition of
Shakespeare’s sonnets. Note: No cutting of the sonnet is allowed (i.e. students must perform the complete sonnet).
IMPORTANT NOTE: Some ESU Branches require students to select a sonnet from a specific list of provided by them. Please
check with your local ESU Branch Shakespeare Coordinator to see if this is the case for you.
First Line
When forty winters shall besiege thy brow
Music to hear, why hear’st thou music sadly?
For shame deny that thou bear’st love to any,
When I do count the clock that tells the time
Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck,
When I consider everything that grows
Who will believe my verse in time to come
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
A woman’s face with Nature’s own hand painted
As an unperfect actor on the stage
Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day
Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all.
When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see,
What is your substance, whereof are you made,
O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem
Not marble nor the gilded [monuments]
Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
Is it thy will thy image should keep open
Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye
Against my love shall be, as I am now,
Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea
Tired with all these, for restful death I cry:
Those parts of thee that the world’s eye doth view
No longer mourn for me when I am dead
Sonnet #
2
8
10
12
14
15
17
18
20
23
27
29
30
34
40
43
53
54
55
60
61
62
63
65
66
69
71
First Line
Why is my verse so barren of new pride
So oft have I invok’d thee for my muse
I never saw that you did painting need
Then hate me when thou wilt, if ever, now,
Some glory in their birth, some in their skill,
How like a winter hath my absence been
My love is strengthened, though more weak in seeming
To me, fair friend, you never can be old,
Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind,
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
That you were once unkind befriends me now,
’Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed,
If my dear love were but the child of state,
O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power
Th’ expense of spirit in a waste of shame
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art,
When my love swears she is made of truth
Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press
In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes,
Lo, as a careful housewife runs to catch
Two loves I have, of comfort and despair,
Those lips that Love’s own hand did make
My love is as a fever, longing still
O me, what eyes hath love put in my head,
Canst thou, O cruel, say I love thee not
The little love-god, lying once asleep,
Sonnet #
76
78
83
90
91
97
102
104
113
116
120
121
124
126
129
130
131
138
140
141
143
144
145
147
148
149
154