Intended as an accessible resource for students researching William Shakespeare's (1564-1616) poetry, this collection of essays about Shakespeare's sonnets contains an in-depth biography of Shakespeare and writings from a wide variety of sources. The essays are edited to accommodate the reading and comprehension levels of young adults; each essay is introduced by a concise summation of the contributor's themes and insights. Additional features include an annotated table of contents, a chronology of Shakespeare's life and career as well as of concurrent historical events, a glossary of literary terms, and primary and secondary bibliographies to facilitate research. The 19 essays and their authors include: "The Mysterious Q: The 1609 Edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets" (Robert Giroux); "What Is a Sonnet?" (William Flint Thrall, Addison Hibbard, and C. Hugh Holman); "The Origin and First Publication of Shakespeare's Sonnets (G.B. Harrison); "Evaluating Shakespeare's Sonnets as Poetry" (W.H. Auden); "Shakespeare Used Ordinary Experiences to Create Powerful Poetry" (John Jay Chapman); "Some Sonnets Express Mixed Feelings" (Hilton Landry); "Shakespeare's Poetic Imagery" (W.G. Ingram); "The Speaker in Shakespeare's Sonnets Is Identifiable" (Hallett Smith); "The Sonnets Are Examples of Persuasive Rhetoric" (David Parker); "The Use of Sound in Shakespeare's Sonnets" (Barbara Herrnstein Smith); "Shakespeare's Sonnets Are the Worlds Greatest Love Poems" (John Dover Wilson); "Shakespeare's Sonnets Portray a Maturing Love" (Edward Dowden); "The Dark Lady Sonnets Explore Passion and Its Effects" (Edward Hubler); "Shakespeare's Sonnets Explore the Meaning of Time" (David Kaula); "Shakespeare Searches for Immortality in the Sonnets" (George Herbert Palmer); "Prose Versions of Seven Sonnets" (A.L. Rowse); "An Analysis of Sonnets 18, 29, 30, 73, and 116" (Gerald Hammond); "Dramatic Shifts in Emphasis Make Sonnet 73 an Effective Poem" (Stephen Booth); and "Shakespeare's Sonnets Imitate and Satirize Earlier Sonnets" (Katharine M. Wilson). (NKA)