Shakespeare on Love

William Shakespeare is ubiquitous throughout the Western world as the master of the written word, and the above-quoted “Sonnet 18” is celebrated as one of the most exquisite love poems of all time. Love comes in all forms—friendly, familial, unrequited, and lustful—and impressively, the bard’s canon works with them all. His views on love—whether they be amorous and passionate or obsessive and unsettling—are provocative to the mind and imagination. The modern reader will recognize poignant t...