Sir Patrick Stewart, well-known actor on both screen and stage, has started reading #ASonnetADay. We would like to make you aware of this process and encourage you to have a look, have a read, and have a listen.
Sonnet 18 is probably Shakespeare’s most famous sonnet. Sir Patrick Stewart starts this recording with a short introduction. (If you do not have enough time for the entire introduction, the reading of the sonnet starts at the timecode 1:52.)
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
I chose to feature this sonnet because it is sensible to start with what is well-known. Considering that Sir Patrick Stewart may in fact read all 154 of Shakespeare’s sonnets, it is reasonable to assume that more of his recordings will be featured here. A well-known sonnet comes with a good amount of preconceived ideas. This makes it a good candidate for looking at its language, having a look at this sonnet in greater detail can help you to understand it better, and to view it from an angle you may not have seen before. Listen to Patrick Stewart’s reading of the sonnet, have a look at this exercise and see if you can find something new.
