ABSTRACT
The lasting strength of love lies in its capacity to endure separation and loss. From the infant’s ability to tolerate the absence of the mother to the adult’s capacity to bear being left by, or losing, a partner, child, or parent, love and separation are intrinsically linked. None has shown us this connection more memorably than Shakespeare in his sonnets. These poems evoke some of the deepest emotions that are aroused by the absence of the loved person, and demonstrate how our experiences of loss and separation inform our perceptions of the world and of nature, history, and humanity.
