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English author William Shakespeare ranks as perhaps the most famous writer in the history of English literature. Shakespeare employed poet verse within his dramatic comedies, tragedies, and histories, and he also composed notable individual poems. His poetic efforts include a series of 154 sonnets, in which he developed the Shakespearian sonnet as a new poetic form, arranged with three quatrains and a couplet. Sonnet 18 (recited by an actor) comes from The Sonnets of Shakespeare (printed in 1609).