SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS, RETOLD
IN MODERN ENGLISH VERSE
Shakespeare’s sonnets are arguably the greatest collection of poetry in the English language. Complex, heartbreaking, perverse and seductive, the 154 sonnets give unrivalled insight into the machinations of Shakespeare’s heart. But what do they all mean?
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? —[ORIGINAL]
Shall I compare you to a summer’s day? —[RETOLD]
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
You’re more delightful, always shining strong;
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
High winds blow hard on flowering buds in May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
And summer never seems to last that long;
Shakespeare earned a living writing plays, yet he expressed his most personal emotions through his private sonnets. As such, Shakespeare’s Sonnets are unimprovable, but, to many, they remain frustratingly unintelligible. And thus, sadly, the greatest collection of love poems ever written are seldom read.
To clarify their meaning and enhance the enjoyment for a broad modern audience, Shakespeare’s Sonnets, Retold is a contemporary re-write of all 154 sonnets, interpreted line-for-line, and written in the traditional iambic pentameter and rhyming pattern of the Bard's eternal verses.
The rich scope of the sonnets is brought to life for today’s audience in an easily understood poetic translation. The passion, heartbreak, deception, lewd acts, reconciliation and mortality of Shakespeare’s originals can now be understood by all, without the need to cross reference to an enjoyment-sapping study-guide. By revealing the machinations of his heart, Shakespeare’s Sonnets, Retold helps the reader understand much of who William Shakespeare really was.
Shakespeare's Sonnets, Retold was published globally in November 2018 by two separate divisions of Penguin Random House.
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FOREWORD, BY STEPHEN FRY
“James Anthony has done something I would have confidently stated to be impossible. He has ‘translated’ Shakespeare’s sonnets and he has done so with an insolent, loveable charm. You would imagine that anyone with the hubris or chutzpah to embark on such a project, daring to fly so close to the English language’s poetic sun, would plummet Icarus-like into the sea. Actually, he has ascended the brightest heaven of invention.
This reinterpretation of the cycle is a dazzling success. Reading the originals and Anthony’s versions side by side enriches both to a remarkable degree. I thought I knew Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets too well to need anyone to gloss or simplify them, but I was quite wrong. The complex, beautiful, disturbing, ambiguous and beguiling thoughts that Shakespeare compresses into his sonnets are worked by Anthony into the same exacting and rewarding fourteen line form but with an ease and fluency that makes you count the syllables to check he hasn’t been cheating.
Aside from the pleasure any reader can derive from this achievement, schools and colleges will stamp and cheer with unrestrained gratitude and delight.”
– STEPHEN FRY
Sonnet 29
ORIGINAL
When in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my out-cast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate.
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the Lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings,
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
RETOLD
What awful luck! I’ve been humiliated,
And so I sob alone for no one cares;
Not even God hears I’m infuriated;
Only my mirror duplicates my swears.
I wish I could be far more optimistic,
With ample friends who’ve got so much to say,
Like writers, thinkers, anyone artistic
Who’d help me look on life a different way.
Yet when I’m in despair, with self-made scorn,
I fondly think of you, then thoughts deploy,
Just like a warbling songbird marking dawn,
Alleviating pain with songs of joy.
For when I dream of you, my heart grows rich;
If offered wealth, I would decline to switch.
Audiobook
The Shakespeare’s Sonnets, Retold audiobook – read by Paapa Essiedu and Stephen Fry – is an award-winning reading of all 154 sonnets.
Listen to a mash-up of the original and retold versions of Sonnet 18:
Paapa Essiedu won the Ian Charleson Award for Best Classical Performance by an actor under 30 for his performances in The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Hamlet and King Lear. His lead role as Hamlet led the Daily Telegraph to declare ‘A new star is born.’
Stephen Fry is a writer, actor, comedian and presenter. He is widely regarded as one of Britain’s finest national treasures. Here he reads all 154 sonnet retellings, his dulcet tones being familiar to many as the voice of the Harry Potter audiobooks.
Listen to the foreword and Sonnet 1:
Audiobook Awards:
Winner of the New York Festivals Radio Awards ‘Best Audiobook’ category
Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.
Author James Anthony explains the genesis and process from writing Shakespeare’s Sonnets, Retold.