Shakespeare's Sonnets: The Secret to Immortality

William Shakespeare (baptized April 26, 1564 – died April 23, 1616) is arguably the greatest writer in any language. His poetry not only serves as one of the most exalted symbols of what an immortal sense of creative identity can accomplish, it serves as a metaphor for the immortality of the artist, and timelessness itself. The idea of classical poetry and classical culture was never to be understood as something based “in time,” as if from a certain period, but rather, it was considered classical because of the nature of the ideas it expressed, ideas which the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley referred to as “profound conceptions respecting man and nature.” A work is thus a “classic” because of the manner in which the artist expressed his/her ideas, namely through Beauty.

Every great culture that has had the opportunity to fully develop its potential has likely known a “classical” period. In a word: a work assumes the title of classical because of the quality of soul which emanates from it; …