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Shakespeare's sonnets comprise a collection of 154 poems in sonnet form written by William Shakespeare.

In 2268, Parmen forced James T. Kirk to recite quotes from Sonnet 57. (TOS: "Plato's Stepchildren")

  • "Being your slave, what should I do but tend / Upon the hours and times of your desire? / I have no precious time at all to spend, / Nor services to do, till you –" (Sonnet 57).

Later that year, Marta partially quoted Sonnet 18 to Garth of Izar and claimed authorship. Garth was not fooled by Marta's attempt. Marta dropped a beat and uses a modern translation of a line, "and summer's lease hath all too soon." Though her interpretation was correct, the missing beat caused the iambic pentameter of the sonnet to break. (TOS: "Whom Gods Destroy")

  • "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? / Thou art more lovely and more temperate. / Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, / And summer's lease hath all too short a date" (Sonnet 18).

In 2365, when Captain Picard began to realize that Doctor Ira Graves had transferred his conscience to Data, Picard quoted the last two lines of Sonnet 18. (TNG: "The Schizoid Man")

  • "So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see / So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. (Sonnet 18)."

Later that year, when he entered Data's quarters and was going through his personal things, Commander Bruce Maddox found Data's volume of Shakespeare and read out a few lines from Sonnet 29. (TNG: "The Measure Of A Man")

  • "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes / I all alone beweep my outcast state (Sonnet 29)."

In 2366, in order to rescue Lwaxana Troi from DaiMon Tog, Picard recites a string of quotes from Shakespeare's sonnets as part of his façade. (TNG: "Ménage à Troi")

  • "My love is a fever, longing still / for that which longer nurseth the disease" (Sonnet 147).
  • "In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes / For they in thee a thousand errors see, / But 'tis my heart that loves what they despise, / Who, in despite of view, are pleased to dote" (Sonnet 141).
  • "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? / Thou art more lovely, and more temperate" (Sonnet 18).
It is interesting to note that Shakespeare's sonnets as a collective represent a ménage à trois that Shakespeare was believed to have been a part of (the young man, the dark lady, and the rival poet). Whether or not this information about the sonnets inspired the title of the episode, "Ménage à Troi," is unknown.

In 2368, Kamala, a Kriosian empathic metamorph impressed Captain Jean-Luc Picard with her knowledge of Shakespeare's sonnets stating that one never knows when the conversation might turn to the "dark woman of raven brows and mournful eyes," referring to Sonnet 127. (TNG: "The Perfect Mate")

  • "Therefore my mistress' eyes are raven black, / her eyes so suited, and they mourners seem" (Sonnet 127).

Background information[]

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Patrick Stewart read many of Shakespeare's sonnets on his Twitter account, starting with Sonnet 116, and then followed by Sonnets 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 23, 24, 25, 73 (in memory of his friend Stirling Moss), 26, 27 and 28 (double feature), 29, 29 and 30 (another take on 29), 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 ("Happy St. George's Day and Shakespeare Day", the latter being the occasion of Shakespeare's birthday on 23 April), 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57 (read by “guest-sonneteer” Jonathan Frakes), 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81 (read by Ian McKellen), 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89 and 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116 (another take on 116, the first Sonnet he performed in this sequence), 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 128, 129, 130, 132, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, and 154.

External links[]

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