Sonnet 26

Shakespeare's Sonnet 26 is generally regarded as the end-point or culmination of the group of five preceding sonnets. It encapsulates several themes not only of Sonnets 20-25, but also of the first twenty-five poems together: the function of writing poems, the effect of class differences, and love. Beloved, whose own worth has connected me to you in feudal bonds, I send you these writings. I send them as a testament to my duty, not to show off my wit. Indeed, my duty is so great that my poor skill may not represent it adequately. Still, I hope that you will aid it with your own imagination, and give my naked rhymes some standing in the world through your approval. Not until the star under which I was born favors me, allowing me to write...