1Four hundred years after they were written, sonnets still attract millions of readers around the world.
2A sonnet has only fourteen lines, but it can hold a whole world of feeling.
3Shakespeare wrote one hundred and fifty four sonnets about love, time, beauty, and death.
4Many students find the language difficult at first, but the emotions are easy to recognise.
5When we read about jealous love or lost youth, we understand the writer immediately.
6Teachers often ask students to learn one sonnet by heart and recite it aloud.
7This old exercise trains the memory and the ear at the same time.
8Modern poets still write sonnets, although they sometimes break the traditional rules of rhyme.
9The strict form is like a small box that makes the poet choose every word carefully.
10Perhaps that is why a good sonnet feels both ancient and surprisingly modern.
11If you have never read one, start with the famous sonnet eighteen this evening.