Shakespeare’s Sonnets

Why it’s on the list: One hundred and fifty-four sonnets, printed in 1609 without evidence Shakespeare authorised it — most addressed to a young man, the rest to a dark lady, with a rival poet moving through the middle. Whether there is a story in the sequence is probably unanswerable; what is certain is that the form, three quatrains and a turning couplet, is the best argument machine in English poetry.

Where I heard about it

• Founders Classical Academy — on the tenth-grade list at this classical school in Lewisville, Texas, the only pure poetry collection in its sequence, closing the year after Paradise Lost; posted by the Classic Learning Test (September 2026). Full eight-year sequence: Founders Classical Academy Reading List.

Connections

• Founders Classical Academy Reading List — the curriculum this came from; 56 unique titles across 5th through 12th grade.
• Classical Education — the movement whose canon this list is.
• William Shakespeare
• Literature
• Poetry