On Shakespeare's Sonnets

Features new work by 30 of the world's most exciting contemporary poets

Hannah Crawforth is Lecturer in Shakespeare Studies at King's College London, UK.Elizabeth Scott-Baumann is Lecturer in Early Modern English Literature at King's College London, UK.

ForewordPrefaceAcknowledgementsWhat poverty my Muse brings forth;Roger McGoughSonnet 1; William ShakespeareSenex on Market Street; Douglas DunnSonnet 11; William ShakespeareThirty-Five; Jackie KaySonnet 12; William ShakespeareRhapsodies; Andrew MotionSonnet 15; William ShakespeareSonnet 15: A Graft; Paul MuldoonSonnet 18; William ShakespeareDream; P. J. KavanaghSonnet 20; William ShakespeareDi-Di-Dah-Dah-Di-Dit; Simon ArmitageSonnet 22; William ShakespeareSonnet; Wendy CopeSonnet 33; William ShakespeareHearing Voices; Mimi KhalvatiSonnet 35; William ShakespearePeacemaker; Michael Symmons RobertsSonnet 36; William ShakespeareTwo; Don PattersonSonnet 38; William ShakespeareAfter Sonnet 38; Nick LairdSonnet 43; William ShakespeareThe Trick; Imtiaz DharkerSonnet 49; William ShakespeareAt the Halle; Bernard O'DonoghueSonnet 55; William ShakespeareThe Sonnets; Michael LongleySonnet 60; William ShakespeareTime's Fool; Kevin Crossley-HollandYour Life as a Wave; Ruth PadelSonnet 65; William ShakespeareStorm, Nissaki; Robin RobertsonTwo Sonnets; Alan BrownjohnSonnet 71; William ShakespeareStill Life; John BurnsideSonnet 73; William Shakespeare73 Shakespeare Close; David Harsent2014/2015; Jo ShapcottSonnet 80; William ShakespeareSalvage; Alan JenkinsSonnet 94; William ShakespeareThree Views of a Secret; Sean O'BrienSonnet 99; William ShakespeareGentian Violet; Paul FarleySonnet 116; William ShakespeareMagnetism; Gillian ClarkeCXVI; Carol Ann DuffyBetrayal; Elaine FeinsteinSonnet 143; William ShakespeareDrowned Man; Fiona SampsonW.S.: The Tithon Sonnets; John FullerList of Contributors and Notes to PoemsIndex of PoetsIndex of First Lines

These contributors are some of the best, and best-known poets writing today ... The result is a slimly elegant book of new poetry, some of it very fine indeed ... [I]t really is extraordinary that these sonnets, first published in 1609, can still be engendering such a range of new ideas and ways of expressing them. Congratulations to the editors Hannah Crawforth and Elizabeth Scott-Baumann.
Wendy Cope's version of sonnet 22, a meditation on age with a twist on enduring love, is a triumph; Carol Ann Duffy's dazzling response to sonnet 116 reinvents the idea of "impediments" to true marriage.
An original and inspired idea ... This exciting collection reminds us that themes of ageing, love, lust and emotional cruelty transcend time.
A wise and often beautiful book, inventive and witty.
This slim volume of poetry offers plenty of meaty material for actors or drama students looking for something fresh and interesting to read or perform ... [A] collection of interesting new poems on ageing, death, mortality, illness and love which force you to read the sonnets which inspired them in a refreshing new light.
Rather ingenious ... A sparky little book.
Offering engaging insights, enjoyable surprises and vivid glimpses of experience, On Shakespeare's Sonnets is very much a living celebration.
... This collection is excellent, a fun introduction to both modern poetry and Shakespeare's classics.
This small volume is a pure delight: a collection of poems (mostly sonnets) by many of England's leading writers in varied and sensitive response to Shakespeare's Sonnets . Each one is essentially intimate, celebrating the lyric spirit of Shakespeare's Sonnets . One of the delights of these poems, in addition to their own wonder as poems, is that they take one back to the sonnets that inspired them to see and hear anew.