Sonnets are a great way to express feeling, ideas, characters, or other literary thoughts. William Shakespeare is considered one of the best sonnet writers to ever pick up the pen (or quill). He is a continually studied author, as his versions of plays are still considered great classics. His sonnets have occasionally gone unnoticed, though certain lines from them can become popular over time, and it's easy to see why when put in a student's perspective. From sonnets about the weather, to ones about love and families (and the occasional "get a spouse and have kids so you don't die alone" type), there are so many reasons to read and enjoy them all. Here are a few ways Shakespeare's sonnets reflect the life of a college student!

10. Studying with your significant other sounds like a great idea--if the test was about the way his blue eyes sparkle, and not some type of chemical analysis...

"Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck;
And yet methinks I have astronomy,
But not to tell of good or evil luck,
Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons' quality;
Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell,
Pointing to each his thunder, rain and wind,
Or say with princes if it shall go well,
By oft predict that I in heaven find:
But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive,
And, constant stars, in them I read such art
As truth and beauty shall together thrive,
If from thyself to store thou wouldst convert;
Or else of thee this I prognosticate:
Thy end is truth's and beauty's doom and date." --Sonnet XIV

9. Making your mark on the world can be challenging, but take it from Shakespeare: if your essays turn out nice enough, they will live on forever in the form of class examples, publishing, or a biography long after you've passed.

"Who will believe my verse in time to come,
If it were fill'd with your most high deserts?
Though yet, heaven knows, it is but as a tomb
Which hides your life and shows not half your parts.
If I could write the beauty of your eyes
And in fresh numbers number all your graces,
The age to come would say 'This poet lies:
Such heavenly touches ne'er touch'd earthly faces.'
So should my papers yellow'd with their age
Be scorn'd like old men of less truth than tongue,
And your true rights be term'd a poet's rage
And stretched metre of an antique song:
But were some child of yours alive that time,
You should live twice; in it and in my rhyme." --Sonnet XVII

8. After a long day of studying, working, practicing, going to classes, or doing whatever else you did today that made you so exhausted, Shakespeare knows the feeling of climbing into bed after a hard day.

"Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;
But then begins a journey in my head,
To work my mind, when body's work's expired:
For then my thoughts, from far where I abide,
Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,
And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,
Looking on darkness which the blind do see
Save that my soul's imaginary sight
Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,
Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night,
Makes black night beauteous and her old face new.
Lo! thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind,
For thee and for myself no quiet find." --Sonnet XXVII

7. Over four years, (or three, or five...) many things will change. You lose friends and family members, but new ones are introduced. However, those loses stay with you. It's okay to remember them and appreciate the time you spent together.

"When to the sessions of sweet silent thought

I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end." --Sonnet XXX

6. A student knows the struggle of seeing that it looks fine out the window, stepping outside and the weather is completely different, so you go back to grab your jacket or umbrella, and it's back to normal. I hold a grudge against the sun, too, Shakespeare.

"Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day,
And make me travel forth without my cloak,
To let base clouds o'ertake me in my way,
Hiding thy bravery in their rotten smoke?
'Tis not enough that through the cloud thou break,
To dry the rain on my storm-beaten face,
For no man well of such a salve can speak
That heals the wound and cures not the disgrace:
Nor can thy shame give physic to my grief;
Though thou repent, yet I have still the loss:
The offender's sorrow lends but weak relief
To him that bears the strong offence's cross.
Ah! but those tears are pearl which thy love sheds,
And they are rich and ransom all ill deeds." --Sonnet XXXIV

5. "I do forgive thy robbery, gentle thief." Overpriced espresso, this one's for you. We can't live without you, but it can sure hurt our wallets to live with you.

What hast thou then more than thou hadst before?
No love, my love, that thou mayst true love call;
All mine was thine before thou hadst this more.
Then if for my love thou my love receivest,
I cannot blame thee for my love thou usest;
But yet be blamed, if thou thyself deceivest
By wilful taste of what thyself refusest.
I do forgive thy robbery, gentle thief,
Although thou steal thee all my poverty;
And yet, love knows, it is a greater grief
To bear love's wrong than hate's known injury.
Lascivious grace, in whom all ill well shows,
Kill me with spites; yet we must not be foes." --Sonnet XL

4. Senior pranks, gifts, and traditions will most likely be remembered long after the class has graduated and moved off. Some students make such an impact on their professors, (or vise versa) that they seem to live on forever.

"Or I shall live your epitaph to make,
Or you survive when I in earth am rotten;
From hence your memory death cannot take,
Although in me each part will be forgotten.
Your name from hence immortal life shall have,
Though I, once gone, to all the world must die:
The earth can yield me but a common grave,
When you entombed in men's eyes shall lie.
Your monument shall be my gentle verse,
Which eyes not yet created shall o'er-read,
And tongues to be your being shall rehearse
When all the breathers of this world are dead;
You still shall live--such virtue hath my pen--
Where breath most breathes, even in the mouths of men." --Sonnet LXXXI

3. For anyone with a significant other, or even best friend or roommate, that live in a different city or state than you do, it takes a lot of patience and understanding to keep the relationship going. When the semester starts back up after a long summer or winter break, it makes it that much more special when you finally get to meet up again in person.

"That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou seest the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire
Consumed with that which it was nourish'd by.
This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long." --Sonnet LXXIII

2. Whether romantic or platonic, whether dating or siblings, love is a significant emotion you experience in college (as well as other times in life). Loving someone as best you can, not over-examining the other person's flaws or trying to "fix" them, is hard to do. However, it is the understanding and caring love that lasts the longest.

"Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved." --Sonnet CXVI

1. The professor gives a lengthy introduction to a gigantic research paper or group project, and you all sit on the edge of your seats, worrying about when this thing is going to be due... That reminds me of this sonnet, but with the theme of "It's due Wednesday...of next week."

"Those lips that Love's own hand did make
Breathed forth the sound that said 'I hate'
To me that languish'd for her sake;
But when she saw my woeful state,
Straight in her heart did mercy come,
Chiding that tongue that ever sweet
Was used in giving gentle doom,
And taught it thus anew to greet:
'I hate' she alter'd with an end,
That follow'd it as gentle day
Doth follow night, who like a fiend
From heaven to hell is flown away;
'I hate' from hate away she threw,
And saved my life, saying 'not you.'" --Sonnet CXLV