Since 1600, two successive lines of verse that rhyme with each other, known as a couplet featured as a part of the longer sonnet form, most notably in William Shakespeare's sonnets.

His theory was based on perceived analogies between Oxford's life and poetic techniques in Shakespeare's plays and sonnets.

* 1609 – Shakespeare's sonnets are first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by the publisher Thomas Thorpe.

The longest sequence was written to Tommaso dei Cavalieri ( c. 1509 – 1587 ), who was 23 years old when Michelangelo met him in 1532, at the age of 57 ; these make up the first large sequence of poems in any modern tongue addressed by one man to another, predating Shakespeare's sonnets to the fair youth by fifty years:

Looney also introduced the argument that the reference to the " ever-living poet " in the 1609 dedication to Shakespeare's sonnets implied that the author was dead at the time of publication.

Shakespeare's sonnets are among the most famous in English poetry, with 20 being included in the Oxford Book of English Verse.

Less obvious manifestations of stanzaic form can be found as well, as in Shakespeare's sonnets, which, while printed as whole units in themselves, can be broken into stanzas with the same rhyme scheme followed by a final couplet, as in the example of Sonnet 116:

Another operatic version came in 1828, when Frederic Reynolds adapted Garrick's Catherine and Petruchio, adding an overture by Rossini and songs from Shakespeare's plays and sonnets set to music by tenor John Braham and T. Cooke.

In an interview with National Public Radio in December 2006, O ' Toole revealed that he knows all 154 of Shakespeare's sonnets.

By some Shakespearian commentators Pembroke has been identified with the " Mr W. H ." referred to as " the onlie begetter " of Shakespeare's sonnets in the dedication by Thomas Thorpe, the owner of the published manuscript, while his mistress, Mary Fitton, has been identified with the " dark lady " of the sonnets.

Notable residents have included Mary Fitton, perhaps the " Dark Lady " of Shakespeare's sonnets, and Samuel " Maggoty " Johnson, a playwright described as the last professional jester in England, whose grave is in the grounds.

Sir Edward III was the father of Mary Fitton, a maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth and a candidate for the " Dark Lady " of Shakespeare's sonnets.

His artistic practice in the early 1980s reflected these commitments, perhaps most famously in The Angelic Conversation ( 1985 ), a film in which the imagery is accompanied by a voice reciting Shakespeare's sonnets, obviously chosen for their openness to a homoerotic re-reading.

He contributed " Sonnet 55 " to the 2002 compilation album, When Love Speaks, which features famous actors and musicians interpreting Shakespeare's sonnets and play excerpts.

In 2008, Faithfull toured readings of Shakespeare's sonnets, drawing on the " Dark Lady " sequence.

He also made a recording of many of Shakespeare's sonnets in 1963.

In addition, passages in the play are direct quotes from Shakespeare's sonnets.

Rowse's " discoveries " about Shakespeare's sonnets amount to the following:

Dedicated to " The Right Honourable the Lady Mary Countess of Pembroke ", we learn that Delia lived on the banks of the River Avon — not Shakespeare's one, of course, but the one which flowed through " where Delia has her seat " at Wilton in Wiltshire — and that the sonnets to her were inspired by her memory when the poet was in Italy.

Shakespeare's sonnets are a collection of 154 sonnets, dealing with themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality, first published in a 1609 quarto entitled SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS.

126 of Shakespeare's sonnets are addressed to a young man, often called the " Fair Youth.

The most famous exposition of the theory is in Oscar Wilde's short story " The Portrait of Mr. W. H .," in which Wilde, or rather the story's narrator, describes the puns on " will " and " hues " in the sonnets, ( notably Sonnet 20 among others ), and argues that they were written to a seductive young actor named Willie Hughes who played female roles in Shakespeare's plays.

Aretino then composed sixteen explicit sonnets to accompany the paintings / engravings, and secured Raimondi ’ s release from prison.

The 16th century was notable for the Heptameron of Marguerite de Navarre ( 1558 ), inspired by Boccaccio's Decameron and the notorious I Modi which married erotic drawings, depicting postures assumed in sexual intercourse, by Giulio Romano, with obscene sonnets by Pietro Aretino.

* I Modi-Illustrations by various artists based on Aretino's erotic sonnets

Around 1524, Marcantonio was briefly imprisoned by Pope Clement VII for making the I modi set of erotic engravings, from the designs of Giulio Romano, which were later accompanied by sonnets written by Pietro Aretino.

Brooke's most famous collection of poetry, containing all five sonnets, 1914 & Other Poems, was first published in May 1915 and, in testament to his popularity, ran to 11 further impressions that year and by June 1918 had reached its 24th impression ; a process undoubtedly fuelled through posthumous interest.

As part of the renewed interest in Shakespeare's original work that accompanied Romanticism, the sonnets rose steadily in reputation during the nineteenth century.

He maintained his interest in poetry throughout his life, exchanging sonnets with William Wordsworth.

About this time the jurist Guido Panzirolo describes him as a young man of fine talent, with promise of a legal career ; but he showed little interest for law, preferring to write sonnets.

For example, Shakespearean sonnets end with a couplet.

Oxfordians believe the title ( Shake-Speares Sonnets ) suggests a finality indicating that it was a completed body of work with no further sonnets expected, and consider the differences of opinion among Shakespearean scholars as to whether the Sonnets are fictional or autobiographical to be a serious problem facing orthodox scholars.

Beginning with Looney, most Oxfordians ( exceptions are Percy Allen and Louis Bénézet ) have asserted that the " Fair Youth " referred to in the early sonnets refers to Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, Oxford's peer and prospective son-in-law.

By the 14th century, the form further crystallized under the pen of Petrarch, whose sonnets were later translated in the 16th century by Sir Thomas Wyatt, who is credited with introducing the sonnet form into English literature.

Traditionally, English poets employ iambic pentameter when writing sonnets, but not all English sonnets have the same metrical structure: the first sonnet in Sir Philip Sidney's sequence Astrophel and Stella, for example, has 12 syllables: it is iambic hexameters, albeit with a turned first foot in several lines.

The ‘ psalms ’ section sets texts drawn from Sternhold's psalter of 1549 in the traditional manner, while the ‘ sonnets and pastorals ’ section employs lighter, more rapid motion with crotchet ( quarter-note ) pulse, and sometimes triple metre ( Though Amaryllis dance in green ).

The book fictionalizes a dying Cyrano writing a sequence of sonnets in an attempt to come to terms with his conflicted life.

The traditional form of the sonnet is revived in Britain, with William Wordsworth writing more sonnets than any other British poet.

In 2005 Fields published the non-fiction book Players: The Mysterious Identity of William Shakespeare, which deals with the authorship of the plays and sonnets of William Shakespeare.

He is known for his Petrarchan love sonnets and for his combative personality, involving feuds with other writers and culminating in an alleged attempted murder.

In the next year he published the poems he had brought back with him from Rome, the Latin Poemata, the Antiquités de Rome, the Divers Jeux Rustiques, and the 191 sonnets of the Regrets, the greater number of which were written in Italy.

As all ten sonnets have not just the same rhyme scheme but the same rhyme sounds, any lines from a sonnet can be combined with any from the nine others, so that there are 10 < sup > 14 </ sup > (= 100, 000, 000, 000, 000 ) different poems.

For example, his fourth book of madrigals for five voices begins with a complete sestina by Petrarch, continues with two-part sonnets, and concludes with another sestina: therefore the entire book can be heard as a unified composition with each madrigal a subsidiary part.