Title Poet Year Written Collection Body
Sonnet. « Qu’est-ce que ce bonheur » Théophile Gautier 1831 French

Qu’est-ce que ce bonheur dont on parle ? — L’avare
Au fond d’un coffre-fort empile des ducats,
Des piastres, des doublons, et plus d’or qu’aux Incas
Jadis avec leur sang n’en fit suer Pizarre.

Il ne voit rien de plus. — Le far-niente, un cigare,
Voilà pour l’...

Sonnet. « Un ange chez moi » Théophile Gautier 1871 French

 

Un ange chez moi parfois vient le soir
Dans un domino d’Hilcampt ou Palmyre,
Robe en moire antique avec cachemire,
Voilette et chapeau faisant masque noir.

Ses ailes ainsi, nul ne peut les voir,
Ni ses yeux d’azur où le ciel se mire ;
Son joli menton...

Sonnet. « Vous étiez sous un arbre » Théophile Gautier 1831 French

Vous étiez sous un arbre, assise en robe blanche,
Quelque ouvrage à la main, à respirer le frais.
Malgré l’ombre, pourtant, des rayons indiscrets
Pénétraient jusqu’à vous, filtrant de branche en branche.

Ils jouaient sur le sein, sur le col, sur la hanche ;
Vous...

Sonnet: To Cyriack Skinner John Milton 1628 English

Cyriack, this three years’ day, these eyes, though clear,
  To outward view, of blemish or of spot,
  Bereft of light, their seeing have forgot:
Nor to their idle orbs doth sight appear
Of sun, or moon, or stars, throughout the year,
  Or man or woman, yet...

Sonnet: “Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show” Sir Philip Sidney 1574 English

From “Astrophel and Stella”
LOVING in truth, and fain in verse my love to show,
That she, dear she, might take some pleasure of my pain,—
Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know,
Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain,—
I sought...

Sonnet: “Muses, that sing Love’s sensual empirie” George Chapman 1580 English

Muses, that sing Love’s sensual empirie,
And lovers kindling your enragèd fires
At Cupid’s bonfires burning in the eye,
Blown with the empty breath of vain desires;
You, that prefer the painted cabinet
Before the wealthy jewels it doth store ye,
...

Sonnet: “While yet these tears have power to flow” Louise Labé 1545 English

From the French by Louise Stuart Costello
WHILE yet these tears have power to flow
  For hours for ever past away;
While yet these swelling sighs allow
  My faltering voice to breathe a lay;
  While yet my hand can touch the chords,
    My tender...

Sonnet: “With how sad steps” Sir Philip Sidney 1574 English

From “Astrophel and Stella”
WITH how sad steps, O Moon! thou climb’st the skies,
How silently, and with how wan a face!
What may it be, that even in heavenly place
That busy Archer his sharp arrows tries?
Sure, if that long-with-love-acquainted eyes...

Sonnet: “Yea, Love is strong as life” Lady Blanche Elizabeth Fitzroy Lindsay English

(Suggested by Mr. Watts’s Picture of Love and Death)

YEA, Love is strong as life; he casts out fear,
And wrath, and hate, and all our envious foes;
He stands upon the threshold, quick to close
The gate of happiness ere should appear
Death’s dreaded...

Sonnets Gabriel Vicaire 1892 French


...

Sonnets Petrus Borel 1922 French

Jamais je n’oublierai l’heureux instant, madame,
Où dans la cour d’Eugène enfin je vous revis :
Je devins fou tout bas, mes sens étaient ravis ;
Un bonheur inconnu descendit en mon âme.

Comme le cerf bondit vers sa biche qui brame,
Comme l’émerillon fond sur un...

Sonnets Sarah Helen Whitman English

1
when first I looked into thy glorious eyes,
And saw, with their unearthly beauty pained,
Heaven deepening within heaven, like the skies
Of autumn nights without a shadow stained,
I stood as one whom some strange dream enthralls;
For, far away in...

Sonnets Mary Ashley Townsend English

The dead SINGER
A POET’S soul has sung its way to God;
Has loosed its luminous wings from earthly thongs,
And soared to join the imperishable throngs
Whose feet the immaculate valleys long have trod.
For him, the recompense; for us, the rod;
And we...

Sonnets Anna Callender Brackett English

In hades
then saw I, with gray eyes fulfilled of rest,
And lulling voice, a woman sweet, and she,—
“Bear thou my word: I am of all most blest;
Nor marvel that I am Eurydice.
I stood and watched those slow feet go from me
Farther and farther; in the...

Sonnets Thomas Bailey Aldrich English

Enamoured architect OF AIRY RHYME
ENAMOURED architect of airy rhyme,
Build as thou wilt; heed not what each man says:
Good souls, but innocent of dreamers’ ways,
Will come, and marvel why thou wastest time;
Others, beholding how thy turrets climb
’...

Sonnets Caroline Atherton Mason English

An open SECRET
WOULD the lark sing the sweeter if he knew
A thousand hearts hung breathless on his lay?
And if “How fair!” the rose could hear us say,
Would she, her primal fairness to outdo,
Take on a richer scent, a lovelier hue?
Who knows or...

Sonnets Lloyd Mifflin English

I
the sovereigns
they who create rob death of half its stings;
They, from the dim inane and vague opaque
Of nothingness, build with their thought, and make
Enduring entities and beauteous things;
They are the Poets—they give airy wings
To...

Sonnets George Santayana English

On The DEATH OF A METAPHYSICIAN
UNHAPPY dreamer, who outwinged in flight
The pleasant region of the things I love,
And soared beyond the sunshine, and above
The golden cornfields and the dear and bright
Warmth of the hearth,—blasphemer of delight,
...

Sonnets à Lamartine Charles Beltjens 1852 French

 
I.

Et Mammon se fraie sa route
là où'un chérubin désespère.
 Lord Byron (Childe-Harold).

Béni cent fois le jour où le sol de la France,
Aux premiers...

Sonnets à Madame M.N. Alfred de Musset 1830 French

I

« Je vous ai vue enfant, maintenant que j'y pense,
Fraîche comme une rose et le coeur dans les yeux.
- Je vous ai vu bambin, boudeur et paresseux ;
Vous aimiez lord Byron, les grands vers et la danse. »

Ainsi nous revenaient les jours de notre enfance,
Et...