Shakespeare's plays, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet, were both written at about the same time as the sonnets, and they both deal with the many different aspects, both positive and negative, of romantic love. Romeo and Juliet begins with a sonnet ("Two households, both alike in dignity") and when the lovers meet their first dialogue forms a sonnet ("If I profane with my unworthiest hand").
Later writers have used the sonnet form to explore subjects other than love. Some of the most notable examples are John Donne's "Holy Sonnets," which are expressions of religious faith; sonnets by William Wordsworth ("Composed upon Westminster Bridge," "It Is a Beauteous Evening," "London, 1802," and "The World Is Too Much With Us" are some of the best known); and John Milton's sonnet on his blindness ("When I.....
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