Polish an ideal stepping stone and read Shakespeare together

William Shakespeare, one of the most outstanding playwrights and poets in the world, has been regarded as a treasure by countless writers and celebrities.
Ben Jonson said, “He does not belong to one era, but to all eras.”
Goethe said, “When I read his first page, I make my whole life belong to him.”
Marx called it “Zeus on Mount Olympus of human literature”.
Borges said, “Every river of consciousness leads to Shakespeare, and day and night lead to Shakespeare without interruption”.
Mr. Jin Yong even threatened, “If one day you go into space, you can only take one set of books, it must be the complete works of Shakespeare.”
More than four hundred years have passed, and Shakespeare’s works still exude immortal charm and become classics among classics.

Needless to say, the influence of Shakespeare’s plays, but for everyone who wants to understand Shakespeare, perhaps Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets are a compulsory course.

Wordsworth, a British romantic poet, once wrote, “With this key, Shakespeare opened his heart.” In the English-speaking world, the series of sonnets can also be said to be Shakespeare’s most widely circulated works besides “Hamlet”.

There is also a saying in the market, “Shakespeare’s best plays can actually be found in his sonnets.”

The most widely circulated Shakespeare sonnet is No. 18. The first two lines “Can I compare you to summer? / You are more lovely and more gentle” melted the hearts of countless people.

But in fact, each of the 154 sonnets is a masterpiece. From language, rhetoric, to the richness and depth of thought contained, what these poems carry has long gone beyond the scope of simple love poems, and has become Shakespeare’s superb artistic level. a monument of .

Shakespeare’s sonnets (excerpts)

Can I compare you to summer?
You are cuter and gentler
The three springs have turned into the withered yellow of late autumn.
Chronology makes me witness the essence of three Aprils
Burnt up by the heat of three Junes.
But you are still as bright as we first met.
Learn to read the poems written by silent love;
Listening with your eyes is the wisdom of love!
Live on the loss of your servant, soul,
Make him thin, that you may increase your store;
Trade the waste of time for divine time;
Nourish the heart, don’t let the appearance be grand

These sonnets are one of Shakespeare’s most laborious, ambitious, and perhaps most personal poetic projects.

Compared with many heavy plays, these light poems, each consisting of only fourteen lines, are an ideal entry into Shakespeare’s world.