S12E2: Sonnet 18, "Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?" by William Shakespeare
For the twelfth season of the Well-Read Poem, we will be reading four poems by William Shakespeare, whose genius as a lyric poet is best appreciated in his collection of 154 sonnets. Shakespeare is of course the supreme dramatic poet of the English language; yet if only his sonnets and shorter poems had survived out of his great body of work, it is not too much to say that he may still have enjoyed a certain literary immortality, albeit of a different sort. In addition to four sonnets by Shakespeare, we will be taking a look at two sonnets by fellow Elizabethan poets, to give a sense of the popularity of this poet form in Shakespeare's day.
To get access to the replays of the Literary Life Online Conference on Shakespeare, visit houseofhumaneletters.com.
Today's poem is Sonnet 18, "Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?" Poem begins at timestamp 8:20.
Sonnet XVIII
by William Shakespeare
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free