8 profound feelings in Shakespeare's sonnets

Feelings in Shakespeare's words

A feeling of being in love

“Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate”

The feeling of sadness and reflection

“No longer mourn for me when I am dead, than you shall hear the surly sullen bell”

Longing for a loved one

“My love is as a fever, longing stillFor that which longer nurseth the disease,Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill,Th’ uncertain sickly appetite to please.”

Feelings of suspicion

“When my love swears that she is made of truth,I do believe her, though I know she lies,That she might think me some untutored youth,Unlearnèd in the world’s false subtleties.”

The fading of beauty

“When forty winters shall besiege thy browAnd dig deep trenches in thy beauty’s field,Thy youth’s proud livery, so gazed on now,Will be a tattered weed, of small worth held.”

On memories and nostalgia

“When to the sessions of sweet silent thoughtI summon up remembrance of things past,I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste.”

On youth, friendship, and remembrance

“To me, fair friend, you never can be old,For as you were when first your eye I eyed,Such seems your beauty still.”

On longing and wish for reunion

“How heavy do I journey on the way,When what I seek, my weary travel’s end,Doth teach that ease and that repose to say‘Thus far the miles are measured from thy friend!”