How many sonnets did Shakespeare write?

Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets in the collection commonly known as Shakespeare’s Sonnets. They were first published together in a quarto edition in 1609, issued by the printer Thomas Thorpe.

The sonnets explore time, beauty, love, jealousy, betrayal, mortality, and the power of poetry to preserve a person’s memory. Sonnets 1–126 are traditionally associated with a young man, while the later poems are commonly linked with the so-called Dark Lady, although the identities and relationships behind the poems remain uncertain.

The number 154 refers to the standard 1609 collection, not every sonnet Shakespeare wrote. Six additional sonnets appear within plays including Romeo and Juliet, Henry V, and Love’s Labour’s Lost, and Edward III contains a partial sonnet. The 1609 volume also includes the longer poem A Lover’s Complaint after the 154 sonnets. Most individual Shakespearean sonnets have fourteen lines and use the English rhyme pattern abab cdcd efef gg.