A fine collection of sonnets from our country's (and the world's) finest wordsmith. Primarily concerned with stuff like love and beauty, the passage of time and the immortality of art, he writes poignantly and accessibly. A lot of people are daunted by Shakespeare, but once you get into the rhythm of it, it's rather easy to absorb. Particularly compared to some of his contemporaries, his poetry is remarkably accessible (as are his plays) for anyone willing to put in just a little bit of effort.

The only problem I had with this selection is this: Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets. This book included 105. It makes me wonder why they didn't just go the whole hog and include them all. Poetry selections should, in my opinion, be a sort of 'greatest hits' giving a taste of a certain poet's vast body of work (like the other books in this Phoenix series do). When the body of work is as small as Shakespeare's sonnets, an abridged selection seems unnecessary. A collection of great poems, but the completist in me is restless that I haven't yet read all of Shakespeare's poetry.

Personal favourites include: the sonnets 17, 18, 27, 29, 34, 54, 61, 79, 106, 116, 129 and 130. ( )