The plays of William Shakespeare remain the touchstone for all literature, but it is through his sonnets - published here as they first appeared with the narrative poem 'A Lover's Complaint' - that we gain the most telling glimpses into his own life. Many were kept private at the time of writing, and even now reading them gives a sense of intimate privilege. From the uncertainties which beset every wooer 'applying fears to hopes and hopes to fears' to a triumphant confidence in the power of love 'that looks on tempests and is never shaken', the poems span a vast range of emotions, and, while we may be fascinated by what they reveal about their writer, the sheer beauty of the language transcends all.