SONNETCAST – William Shakespeare's Sonnets Recited, Revealed, Relived - Special Guest: Professor Stephen Regan – The Sonnet as a Poetic Form

Special Guest: Professor Stephen Regan – The Sonnet as a Poetic Form

07/09/23 • 49 min

SONNETCAST – William Shakespeare's Sonnets Recited, Revealed, Relived

In this special episode, Stephen Regan, Professor Emeritus at Durham University, who is currently a research associate in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne and the author of The Sonnet (Oxford University Press, 2019), talks to Sebastian Michael about the sonnet as a poetic form: its origins, how it reaches the English language, what Shakespeare does with it that is so extraordinary, and what its outlook is for the 21st century and beyond.

Previous Episode

Sonnet 42: That Thou Hast Her, it Is Not All My Grief

In the second of two sonnets that try to deal with the fallout from the young man's infidelity, William Shakespeare contorts himself into an argument that, really, both his young lover and his mistress did what they did only for the love they both bear him. That this is something of a delusion is a conclusion he himself comes to as easily as we do. Sonnet 42 nevertheless yields a valuable new insight into the suddenly so complex situation by drawing a clear distinction between the levels of priority and the types of connection William Shakespeare feels he has with the other two protagonists of what, without his own intention or let alone approval, has turned into a remarkably post-modern love triangle.

Next Episode

Sonnet 43: When Most I Wink Then Do Mine Eyes Best See

Sonnet 43 leaves behind, for the time-being, the upheaval and upset caused by the young man's betrayal of Shakespeare with his own mistress and picks up the theme – and to a lesser extent mood – of Sonnets 27 & 28 when Shakespeare – away from his young lover and tired with travel – is kept awake by the beautiful young man's vision appearing to him in his dreams.