On Shakespeare's Sonnets

'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 ... It 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.' - The Independent On Shakespeare's Sonnets: A Poets' Celebration brings together thirty of the world's foremost contemporary poets writing in response to Shakespeare's Sonnets. In the years since Shakespeare's death, the Sonnets have invited imitation, homage, critique, parody and pastiche. These poems probe our relationship to the Sonnets' intricate form and ambitious scope, their investigation of sexuality, wit, memory and poetic survival. These sonnets and longer lyrics explore what it means to write 'on Shakespeare's Sonnets' in the 21st century. This new paperback edition also includes an updated preface. Published in association with the Royal Society of Literature, contributing poets include: Andrew Motion, Carol Ann Duffy, Gillian Clarke, Paul Muldoon, Ruth Padel, Simon Armitage, Roger McGough, Wendy Cope, Jackie Kay, Mimi Khalvati, Imtiaz Dharker and Jo Shapcott, among many others.

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

Foreword Preface Acknowledgements What poverty my Muse brings forth; Roger McGough Sonnet 1 Senex on Market Street; Douglas Dunn Sonnet 11 Thirty-Five; Jackie Kay Sonnet 12 Rhapsodies; Andrew Motion Sonnet 15 Sonnet 15: A Graft; Paul Muldoon Sonnet 18 Dream; P. J. Kavanagh Sonnet 20 Di-Di-Dah-Dah-Di-Dit; Simon Armitage Sonnet 22 Sonnet; Wendy Cope Sonnet 33 Hearing Voices; Mimi Khalvati Sonnet 35 Peacemaker; Michael Symmons Roberts Sonnet 36 Two; Don Patterson Sonnet 38 After Sonnet 38; Nick Laird Sonnet 43 The Trick; Imtiaz Dharker Sonnet 49 At the Halle; Bernard O'Donoghue Sonnet 55 The Sonnets; Michael Longley Sonnet 60 Time's Fool; Kevin Crossley-Holland Your Life as a Wave; Ruth Padel Sonnet 65 Storm, Nissaki; Robin Robertson Two Sonnets; Alan Brownjohn Sonnet 71 Still Life; John Burnside Sonnet 73 73 Shakespeare Close; David Harsent 2014/2015; Jo Shapcott Sonnet 80 Salvage; Alan Jenkins Sonnet 94 Three Views of a Secret; Sean O'Brien Sonnet 99 Gentian Violet; Paul Farley Sonnet 116 Magnetism; Gillian Clarke CXVI; Carol Ann Duffy Betrayal; Elaine Feinstein Sonnet 143 Drowned Man; Fiona Sampson W.S.: The Tithon Sonnets; John Fuller List of Contributors and Notes to Poems Index of Poets Index of First Lines