The sonnet form has been used by many poets in many languages since it was invented in the Middle Ages. It really arrived in English literature during the reign of Henry VIII in the sixteenth century, when poets such as Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, introduced it at court. Since then poets have found new ways to use it to say what they want to say – it’s been a love poem, an elegy, a nature poem, an argument, a poem of remembrance, and much else. Here are ten of the finest sonnets in all of English literature, from the sixteenth century to the present day. Click on the title of each poem to read it.

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For the next few weeks, Pop Sonnets author Erik Didriksen will debut a weekly Shakespearean sonnet inspired by a classic summer jam. To kick the series off, we're taking it back to the '90s, when "New Kids on the Block had a bunch of hits..."