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Reading Shakespeare's Sonnets
Shakespeare's Sonnets are as important and vital today as they were when first published four hundred years ago. Perhaps no collection of verse before or since has so captured the imagination of readers and lovers; certainly no poem has come under such intense critical scrutiny, and presented the reader with such a bewildering number of alternative interpretations. In this illuminating and often irreverent guide, Don Paterson offers a fresh and direct approach to the Sonnets, asking what they can still mean to the twenty-first century reader.
In a series of fascinating and highly entertaining commentaries placed alongside the poems themselves, Don Paterson discusses the meaning, technique, hidden structure and feverish narrative of the Sonnets, as well as the difficulties they present for the modern reader. Most importantly, however, he looks at what they tell us about William Shakespeare the lover - and what they might still tell us about ourselves.
In a series of fascinating and highly entertaining commentaries placed alongside the poems themselves, Don Paterson discusses the meaning, technique, hidden structure and feverish narrative of the Sonnets, as well as the difficulties they present for the modern reader. Most importantly, however, he looks at what they tell us about William Shakespeare the lover - and what they might still tell us about ourselves.
528 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
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355 people want to read
About the author
Don Paterson
61 books102 followersDon Paterson (b. 1963) is a Scottish poet and writer. He is the author of sixteen books of poetry, aphorism, criticism, memoir and poetic theory. His poetry has won many awards, including the Whitbread Poetry Prize, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, the Costa Poetry Award, three Forward Prizes, the T.S. Eliot Prize on two occasions, and the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry.
He is a Professor Emeritus at the University of St. Andrews, and for twenty-five years was Poetry Editor at Picador MacMillan. He has long had a parallel career as a jazz guitarist.
He lives in Kirriemuir, Angus.
He is a Professor Emeritus at the University of St. Andrews, and for twenty-five years was Poetry Editor at Picador MacMillan. He has long had a parallel career as a jazz guitarist.
He lives in Kirriemuir, Angus.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
April 18, 2017
Wow. I'm just not sure how I feel about this one. Well, okay, I love it. And also I have significant issues with it. What, that doesn't clear things up?
Paterson is a Scottish poet and academic in his 50s (yes, that actually is relevant to my discussion here), and is the latest in a long line of commentators on Shakespeare's sonnets. His edition posits itself to be far less stuffy than most of the crucial texts on these poems (and the publishers have jumped on board that notion, as evidenced by the promotion around it, and the book's cover itself) yet at the same time, Paterson is able to bring an equally academic but far more fascinating viewpoint - that of an actual, working poet, rather than the solely intellectual pursuits of many well-known Bardolaters.
I'm going to get most of the negative points out of the way first, lest the review end with a sour taste when I aiming mostly for the sweet. While Paterson's aims are noble, in practice they're at times self-defeating. Yes, he makes references to Kanye West and British soaps, to social media and comparable 21st-century slang, all of which help to illuminate his points. At the same time, it's blatantly clear that this book isn't intended purely for the common reader - and possibly not at all. Sure, the publishers would like to sell as many copies as possible, but this is still an academic text, even if it's done away with many of the trimmings. Fair enough, I don't expect the author to dumb down his knowledge, but when you're casually slipping in terms like "hyperbaton" and other rhetoric tropes, things become a little inside-baseball. Given my own association with the academic field, I don't know what it would actually be like for a layperson to read this book, but I suspect they'd come away from several paragraphs dazed and confused.
What these commentaries read as, more often than not, are lectures or tutorial pieces aimed at tertiary-level poetry and philosophy students. I suspect Paterson would be a brilliant teacher, since he has a keen eye and a beguiling way of relating to people as he explains key concepts. At the same time, he's a man with a vast repository of knowledge, and it becomes clear that this is not quite the "Sonnets for a Common Man" the cover suggests. (I should stress, I have no problem with this volume being academic; it just seems like a jarring disconnect from how it is portrayed on the tin.) If you're approaching this book with little-to-no understanding of Elizabethan poetry and rhetoric, you'll still get a lot of enjoyment out of it, but I'd advise you to be prepared to do some of the groundwork and research yourself.
Now, of course, I realise this is a churlish argument. It's not as if academic poets are being offered five-book deals these days. I value the many key insights this book has passed on to me (see below) and I'm not at all disappointed that Paterson was given this assignment. I just wonder whether this is the publisher getting one over us, or Paterson's initial pitch cheekily getting one over his publisher?
There are occasionally some typographical errors (at least in the edition I purchased), and sometimes Paterson's forays into pop culture references come across as transcribed speech - to the point where if you don't get the reference (which, as a non-Brit much younger than the author, I often did not), the entire paragraph becomes unreadable. Still, as the author points out himself, them's the perils of being contemporary in your work. As he discusses the other lofty tomes on which all Shakespearean commentators must stand, it becomes clear that this is a man who has truly thought about the text he's discussing. None of the big names - Booth, Kerrigan, Duncan-Jones - get off lightly with their transgressions, but they're all clearly idolised for their contributions. Paterson isn't seeking to be a definitive text on the sonnets, but he sure is a useful addition to the great conversation.
The other hesitation I'll save for below. Let's discuss some of the best parts of this book. Well, as I mentioned, Paterson's knowledge is immense. He's funny, rarely pretentious, keen-eyed and innovative with how he resolves cruces (I can't think of any time that I found his allegations completely ridiculous - which is really saying something in this particular sub-genre of scholarship!). The book is also laid out very well, with each sonnet printed alongside its commentary, and key lines repeated where need be. The book eschews a standardised layout, allowing Paterson to analyse one sonnet on a line-by-line basis, the next in relation to previous commentaries, and the next in one paraphrase. Rather than feeling constrained by a formula, he is able to present us with varied insights that build up to being a very useful primer on how the sonnets play into the time they were written, how they have been received in the centuries since, and - most importantly - how understanding the actual process of creating poetry can help us to conclusions that may have been missed by the purebred intellectuals.
Which is really the key point of this book, truth be told. At times, I was frustrated when Paterson only glossed two lines of a given sonnet in depth. But that isn't what this book aims to be. What the author brings to Shakespeare's sonnets is a practicality sadly missing from much commentary. Where other scholars see a deliberately-laid puzzle, Paterson sees a poet trying to put words in the most beautiful order. Where scholars see a compositor's error during printing, Paterson sees a poet simply facing a deadline. Where some see brilliance, he will sometimes call their bluff by deconstructing the poem's composition. It's occasionally iconoclastic, and sometimes willfully pragmatic (and, of course, undoubtedly sometimes wrong), but more often than not I find myself believing him. (For instance, I've spent the last decade being somewhat doubtful about the numerological approaches to the sonnets - Helen Vendler is clearly nuts, but even Duncan-Jones may have just been a scholar fixated on a theory. However, as Paterson outlines his case, there's a construction worker's logic that I almost can't fault. Now, that's impressive.)
I do have one last little quibble, and that is the rather cute conceit that the book was written almost without editing. Paterson chose to read the sonnets whenever he could find the time, in the way that most people would read them, and document his thoughts as he goes. This is admirable, certainly, and fits in with the increasingly blog-like approach to non-fiction books these days; it also helps separate his work from the weightier tomes gathering dust on so many library bookshelves. Yet, it's ultimately distressing: when the author explains he won't investigate a line further because it's "after midnight", or because he's in a bad mood, well that just seems like poor criticism. It's not a dealbreaker, but there were a handful of moments when I was absolutely dismayed by Paterson's relaxed approach; I realise it's his authorial persona and not his true opinion, but nevertheless it does not bode well for the future of popular scholarship. Of course, there's an inverse argument to be made here - what Paterson does over the course of analysing these 154 poems is to, in effect, teach us how to read a poem. Not "read" it in the sense that we can all enjoy Sonnet #18 for being beautiful, or Sonnet #29 for expressing something mundane in a beautiful way. But in the sense that we actually analyse how a poem is put together, searching for the best way of doing it, and tearing down some of our basic assumptions that have led generations of Westerners to appreciate the "gloopy" sonnets (as Paterson calls them) often at the expense of the intelligent and tangled ones.
Still, why am I being so negative? This is a lovely book. Anyone seriously interested in the collection needs to check out the other works Paterson cites (well, maybe not the Vendler), and use your initiative! Yet, this is a worthy starting-point, and certainly a useful addition for those of us more seasoned in the subject matter. Paterson encourages us to see the sonnets as not just museum pieces for "close study" but as the works of a poet engaging in the world. I'm not a poet, although I do write fiction, but this was undoubtedly the book's greatest legacy. It doesn't just teach you how Shakespeare wrote, it sharpens the reader's critical faculties overall. What may look like good poetry might simply be pleasing poetry, Paterson argues - and until we can make that distinction, our ability to engage with the wider artistic world is weakened. (How much of my time writing this review was spent worrying about how my tenors matched my vehicles? So much of it. You'll understand what I mean if you read the book.)
Paterson is a Scottish poet and academic in his 50s (yes, that actually is relevant to my discussion here), and is the latest in a long line of commentators on Shakespeare's sonnets. His edition posits itself to be far less stuffy than most of the crucial texts on these poems (and the publishers have jumped on board that notion, as evidenced by the promotion around it, and the book's cover itself) yet at the same time, Paterson is able to bring an equally academic but far more fascinating viewpoint - that of an actual, working poet, rather than the solely intellectual pursuits of many well-known Bardolaters.
I'm going to get most of the negative points out of the way first, lest the review end with a sour taste when I aiming mostly for the sweet. While Paterson's aims are noble, in practice they're at times self-defeating. Yes, he makes references to Kanye West and British soaps, to social media and comparable 21st-century slang, all of which help to illuminate his points. At the same time, it's blatantly clear that this book isn't intended purely for the common reader - and possibly not at all. Sure, the publishers would like to sell as many copies as possible, but this is still an academic text, even if it's done away with many of the trimmings. Fair enough, I don't expect the author to dumb down his knowledge, but when you're casually slipping in terms like "hyperbaton" and other rhetoric tropes, things become a little inside-baseball. Given my own association with the academic field, I don't know what it would actually be like for a layperson to read this book, but I suspect they'd come away from several paragraphs dazed and confused.
What these commentaries read as, more often than not, are lectures or tutorial pieces aimed at tertiary-level poetry and philosophy students. I suspect Paterson would be a brilliant teacher, since he has a keen eye and a beguiling way of relating to people as he explains key concepts. At the same time, he's a man with a vast repository of knowledge, and it becomes clear that this is not quite the "Sonnets for a Common Man" the cover suggests. (I should stress, I have no problem with this volume being academic; it just seems like a jarring disconnect from how it is portrayed on the tin.) If you're approaching this book with little-to-no understanding of Elizabethan poetry and rhetoric, you'll still get a lot of enjoyment out of it, but I'd advise you to be prepared to do some of the groundwork and research yourself.
Now, of course, I realise this is a churlish argument. It's not as if academic poets are being offered five-book deals these days. I value the many key insights this book has passed on to me (see below) and I'm not at all disappointed that Paterson was given this assignment. I just wonder whether this is the publisher getting one over us, or Paterson's initial pitch cheekily getting one over his publisher?
There are occasionally some typographical errors (at least in the edition I purchased), and sometimes Paterson's forays into pop culture references come across as transcribed speech - to the point where if you don't get the reference (which, as a non-Brit much younger than the author, I often did not), the entire paragraph becomes unreadable. Still, as the author points out himself, them's the perils of being contemporary in your work. As he discusses the other lofty tomes on which all Shakespearean commentators must stand, it becomes clear that this is a man who has truly thought about the text he's discussing. None of the big names - Booth, Kerrigan, Duncan-Jones - get off lightly with their transgressions, but they're all clearly idolised for their contributions. Paterson isn't seeking to be a definitive text on the sonnets, but he sure is a useful addition to the great conversation.
The other hesitation I'll save for below. Let's discuss some of the best parts of this book. Well, as I mentioned, Paterson's knowledge is immense. He's funny, rarely pretentious, keen-eyed and innovative with how he resolves cruces (I can't think of any time that I found his allegations completely ridiculous - which is really saying something in this particular sub-genre of scholarship!). The book is also laid out very well, with each sonnet printed alongside its commentary, and key lines repeated where need be. The book eschews a standardised layout, allowing Paterson to analyse one sonnet on a line-by-line basis, the next in relation to previous commentaries, and the next in one paraphrase. Rather than feeling constrained by a formula, he is able to present us with varied insights that build up to being a very useful primer on how the sonnets play into the time they were written, how they have been received in the centuries since, and - most importantly - how understanding the actual process of creating poetry can help us to conclusions that may have been missed by the purebred intellectuals.
Which is really the key point of this book, truth be told. At times, I was frustrated when Paterson only glossed two lines of a given sonnet in depth. But that isn't what this book aims to be. What the author brings to Shakespeare's sonnets is a practicality sadly missing from much commentary. Where other scholars see a deliberately-laid puzzle, Paterson sees a poet trying to put words in the most beautiful order. Where scholars see a compositor's error during printing, Paterson sees a poet simply facing a deadline. Where some see brilliance, he will sometimes call their bluff by deconstructing the poem's composition. It's occasionally iconoclastic, and sometimes willfully pragmatic (and, of course, undoubtedly sometimes wrong), but more often than not I find myself believing him. (For instance, I've spent the last decade being somewhat doubtful about the numerological approaches to the sonnets - Helen Vendler is clearly nuts, but even Duncan-Jones may have just been a scholar fixated on a theory. However, as Paterson outlines his case, there's a construction worker's logic that I almost can't fault. Now, that's impressive.)
I do have one last little quibble, and that is the rather cute conceit that the book was written almost without editing. Paterson chose to read the sonnets whenever he could find the time, in the way that most people would read them, and document his thoughts as he goes. This is admirable, certainly, and fits in with the increasingly blog-like approach to non-fiction books these days; it also helps separate his work from the weightier tomes gathering dust on so many library bookshelves. Yet, it's ultimately distressing: when the author explains he won't investigate a line further because it's "after midnight", or because he's in a bad mood, well that just seems like poor criticism. It's not a dealbreaker, but there were a handful of moments when I was absolutely dismayed by Paterson's relaxed approach; I realise it's his authorial persona and not his true opinion, but nevertheless it does not bode well for the future of popular scholarship. Of course, there's an inverse argument to be made here - what Paterson does over the course of analysing these 154 poems is to, in effect, teach us how to read a poem. Not "read" it in the sense that we can all enjoy Sonnet #18 for being beautiful, or Sonnet #29 for expressing something mundane in a beautiful way. But in the sense that we actually analyse how a poem is put together, searching for the best way of doing it, and tearing down some of our basic assumptions that have led generations of Westerners to appreciate the "gloopy" sonnets (as Paterson calls them) often at the expense of the intelligent and tangled ones.
Still, why am I being so negative? This is a lovely book. Anyone seriously interested in the collection needs to check out the other works Paterson cites (well, maybe not the Vendler), and use your initiative! Yet, this is a worthy starting-point, and certainly a useful addition for those of us more seasoned in the subject matter. Paterson encourages us to see the sonnets as not just museum pieces for "close study" but as the works of a poet engaging in the world. I'm not a poet, although I do write fiction, but this was undoubtedly the book's greatest legacy. It doesn't just teach you how Shakespeare wrote, it sharpens the reader's critical faculties overall. What may look like good poetry might simply be pleasing poetry, Paterson argues - and until we can make that distinction, our ability to engage with the wider artistic world is weakened. (How much of my time writing this review was spent worrying about how my tenors matched my vehicles? So much of it. You'll understand what I mean if you read the book.)
July 22, 2012
Incredibly, I am going to be the first person to review this book here! I'd better be very careful about what I say, this is my chance for immortality!
I have been a big Shakespeare fan since we studied in depth 10 of his plays in my last year at uni. I have been lucky to see The Royal Shakespeare Company twice, and I have seen many of his plays in open air performances, such as the Ephraim Gardens near Canterbury or New College during a summer in Oxford. A few months ago I invested in the BBC box with all of his plays and I am watching them, with subtitles -I am only a near-native English speaker. I started off with "Troilus and Cressida", because it was the play performed in "The Balkan Trilogy" by Olivia Manning -I read these novels this winter- and "Measure for Measure", which I had never ever seen, although I had read it.
I am coming to the sonnets: you see, we never did them at uni. I didn't even know there were so many of them -154, to be precise-. I actually own a couple of slim bilingual anthologies, but I was unaware that they were that, anthologies only.
As for Don Paterson, in that very same summer in Oxford I came across one of his poems in an English class, and I never forgot his name -I must buy "Rain"-. So Shakespeare and him are a happy marriage for me.
So this was a little intellectual project of mine, and I have really enjoyed reading the sonnets as a sequence, as the story of a relationship (as most of the poems are addressed to an unknown young man, thought by many to be Henry Wriothesley) that caused Shakespeare great passion and great pain.
The first batch of sonnets seemed to have been written by commission and they invite the young man to procreate. After that, we see a relationship growing between both men, and the sonnets feel as if Shakespeare has written them as a reflection on things that were happening between them: the distance that sometimes separated them, the feelings of self-hatred that Shakespeare gave in to, or the danger of other young men or women around the beloved.
The last 25 sonnets or so are The Dark Lady's. It seems that this lady, together with the Young Man and Shakespeare, constitutes part of a love triangle, as she appears to have a relationship with both men. Shakespeare seems to be "trying" heterosexuality with the Dark Lady: he despises her and hints that she is "wanton", but is nevertheless sexually attracted to her -or to sex, I suppose, although I don't think things were platonic -never better said- between the Young Man and him.
Don Paterson is the best company when attempting to read and fully understand the sonnets: his commentary was vital to me, as a non-native English speaker. He explains the meaning of words, the puns, the metric, the effect produced by various literary techniques, the various interpretations... it is like the perfect class: the teacher is clever, lively and passionate about his subject and no exam at the end!
I don't think I could pinpoint a single favourite sonnet. So many deal with the topic of immortality for the Young Man in the poems, that you can get tired of even the best of them all. I found the self-hatred ones appealing -not very healthy, this, though-, or those that describe more vividly the woe of being in love but insecure about it being fully reciprocal. Lying in bed, in the dark, thinking, thinking.
I wish somebody could send Don Paterson a link to my review, just in case he thinks that nobody is reading those particular sonnets he feels have been undervalued.
I have been a big Shakespeare fan since we studied in depth 10 of his plays in my last year at uni. I have been lucky to see The Royal Shakespeare Company twice, and I have seen many of his plays in open air performances, such as the Ephraim Gardens near Canterbury or New College during a summer in Oxford. A few months ago I invested in the BBC box with all of his plays and I am watching them, with subtitles -I am only a near-native English speaker. I started off with "Troilus and Cressida", because it was the play performed in "The Balkan Trilogy" by Olivia Manning -I read these novels this winter- and "Measure for Measure", which I had never ever seen, although I had read it.
I am coming to the sonnets: you see, we never did them at uni. I didn't even know there were so many of them -154, to be precise-. I actually own a couple of slim bilingual anthologies, but I was unaware that they were that, anthologies only.
As for Don Paterson, in that very same summer in Oxford I came across one of his poems in an English class, and I never forgot his name -I must buy "Rain"-. So Shakespeare and him are a happy marriage for me.
So this was a little intellectual project of mine, and I have really enjoyed reading the sonnets as a sequence, as the story of a relationship (as most of the poems are addressed to an unknown young man, thought by many to be Henry Wriothesley) that caused Shakespeare great passion and great pain.
The first batch of sonnets seemed to have been written by commission and they invite the young man to procreate. After that, we see a relationship growing between both men, and the sonnets feel as if Shakespeare has written them as a reflection on things that were happening between them: the distance that sometimes separated them, the feelings of self-hatred that Shakespeare gave in to, or the danger of other young men or women around the beloved.
The last 25 sonnets or so are The Dark Lady's. It seems that this lady, together with the Young Man and Shakespeare, constitutes part of a love triangle, as she appears to have a relationship with both men. Shakespeare seems to be "trying" heterosexuality with the Dark Lady: he despises her and hints that she is "wanton", but is nevertheless sexually attracted to her -or to sex, I suppose, although I don't think things were platonic -never better said- between the Young Man and him.
Don Paterson is the best company when attempting to read and fully understand the sonnets: his commentary was vital to me, as a non-native English speaker. He explains the meaning of words, the puns, the metric, the effect produced by various literary techniques, the various interpretations... it is like the perfect class: the teacher is clever, lively and passionate about his subject and no exam at the end!
I don't think I could pinpoint a single favourite sonnet. So many deal with the topic of immortality for the Young Man in the poems, that you can get tired of even the best of them all. I found the self-hatred ones appealing -not very healthy, this, though-, or those that describe more vividly the woe of being in love but insecure about it being fully reciprocal. Lying in bed, in the dark, thinking, thinking.
I wish somebody could send Don Paterson a link to my review, just in case he thinks that nobody is reading those particular sonnets he feels have been undervalued.
March 1, 2014
I have read several different editions of Shakespeare's sonnets over the years (including one - entitled 'No Fear Shakespeare' - that presented the text of each poem on the left-hand page accompanied by a supposedly easy to follow, updated version in modern English on the corresponding right-hand page!). Scottish poet Don Paterson's edition is, however, much the best that I have encountered. It includes all 154 sonnets. But what sets it well above other collections of Shakespeare's wonderful verse is the witty, clever, sometimes irreverent and always informative and entertaining commentary and analysis that Paterson provides on each sonnet. As an example of what I mean, here are the opening lines of his commentary on one of the best-known sonnets, sonnet 29: "As Shakespearian arguments go, 'whenever I feel awful, I think about you and then I feel much better' isn't up there with his most sophisticated; but it's a sweet enough poem, I suppose. It's really no more than flowery periphrasis, though. There's very little here to lift it out of the mundane.". Paterson continues in this refreshingly cheeky and opinionated vein for most of the book. He doesn't eschew intelligent insight. But he presents his thoughts in a delightfully light manner that will surely please readers who are familiar with the sonnets and those who are coming to them for the first time, perhaps with a little trepidation. This wonderfully unstuffy book deserves classic status and will surely become an authoritative source of commentary and analysis on these often marvellous poems. I loved it. 10/10.
May 2, 2015
I first encountered Don Paterson in his lecture on
Frost's "West Running Brook" on the Poetry Foundation website.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/featu...
Listen to his voice and you'll understand the commentary in
his natural tone.
What do I think? Too soon to tell. A rich sense
of detail and understanding from a working poet.
He journals his way through the 154 poems, citing
interesting insights selected from the half-dozen
standard commentaries, dismissing some sarcastically
when appropriate. He's clear when he presents his own
ideas and impressions, especially when they get whimsical
and outrageous, always offered with a "for-what-its-worth".
Some of his comments and appraisals are laugh-out-loud funny,
as my wife can attest.
At times it felt like reading Nabokov's "Pale Fire", where the
commentary is as significant as the poem and tells a different,
complementary, amplified story, riffing off the images of the
sonnet under consideration.
Frost's "West Running Brook" on the Poetry Foundation website.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/featu...
Listen to his voice and you'll understand the commentary in
his natural tone.
What do I think? Too soon to tell. A rich sense
of detail and understanding from a working poet.
He journals his way through the 154 poems, citing
interesting insights selected from the half-dozen
standard commentaries, dismissing some sarcastically
when appropriate. He's clear when he presents his own
ideas and impressions, especially when they get whimsical
and outrageous, always offered with a "for-what-its-worth".
Some of his comments and appraisals are laugh-out-loud funny,
as my wife can attest.
At times it felt like reading Nabokov's "Pale Fire", where the
commentary is as significant as the poem and tells a different,
complementary, amplified story, riffing off the images of the
sonnet under consideration.
March 15, 2024
Bit disheartening that the sonnets I think are artful and acute, Paterson thinks are tripe, and those I think are arcane and abstruse, he rates.
December 30, 2024
I love Don Paterson’s poetry, read his autobiography, ‘Toy Fights’ recently and felt another dose of Paterson was needed. His take on Shakespeare‘s sonnets is superb. Although he represents this as a primary reading, there is enough here to satisfy all but the ardent Shakespeare scholar. Erudite, entertaining and deliciously irreverent, I found myself informed, engaged and not infrequently infuriated. First time I have actually read these sonnets straight through but it won’t be the last.
September 20, 2022
Bold, original and a friendly reminder that Bill the Bard wrote for money and sometimes turned in rushed work. The talk-shop approach is refreshing as it is blunt. (‘My mistress’s eyes are nothing like the sun’ is misogynistic tripe; the first seventeen are dull warm-ups; too many repetitions, awkward alliteration and creaky metaphors.)
June 5, 2025
references to the 21st century sort of rubbed me up the wrong way. feels reductive in its humour but i might just be a traditionalist. i can see how this could be funny and enjoyable, though. just not a fan.
February 27, 2015
My mum and I adored this book! I gave it to my English teacher as a wedding present, because it was so good. Don Paterson's humour made us laugh out loud. His criticism of the sonnets are fascinating as he approaches it from a poet's point of view. One of my favourite sonnets was the one where Don Paterson attempted to work out a potentially missing or mis-edited word by poetry detective work. His paraphrases of the sonnets are also very witty and helpful in understanding the sometimes convoluted ideas and language. Mum and I enjoyed discussing each sonnet after reading it, and towards the end we got better at predicting what Don Paterson would make of it. He is not afraid to criticise the greatest writer of all time's work, but also gives praise when it's due. His essays on the sonnet form are fascinating reading. Paterson's critique of all the other sonnet criticisms is also very funny and enlightening!
This is the kind of book you should read a bit of every day, and I will love coming back to it to read it again.
This is the kind of book you should read a bit of every day, and I will love coming back to it to read it again.
February 19, 2021
I liked the idea of engaging with the sonnets in an informal way, being honest when one moves you or bores you. It's a refreshing alternative to treating Shakespeare as a deeply serious topic for academic study. Reading Paterson gave me the impetus to read all the sonnets, and trust my own reactions to them.
However, Patterson's voice is very particular. After around 100 commentaries, he really started to grate on me. Sometimes, it's a little too blog-like, or like listening to someone at a cocktail party. I suppose it was inevitable, but you especially notice his annoying qualities when you're going back and forth between him and Shakespeare. Shakespeare is sort of a tough act to follow.
However, Patterson's voice is very particular. After around 100 commentaries, he really started to grate on me. Sometimes, it's a little too blog-like, or like listening to someone at a cocktail party. I suppose it was inevitable, but you especially notice his annoying qualities when you're going back and forth between him and Shakespeare. Shakespeare is sort of a tough act to follow.
July 30, 2024
A neatly done book.
As the author of this book tells us and we tend to come to an agreement with him that the central theme of the Sonnets taken together is the Bard’s abysmal love and reflective admiration for the Earl of Southampton. The first 126 sonnets contain many tributes to the Earl, and they also express Shakespeare's profound attachment to him, though a few of them contain his grievances against that eminent personage.
According to this book, another theme which emerges, more particularly in the sonnets of the second group (127-152), is Shakespeare's adulterous love-affair with the dark lady (adulterous because Shakespeare was a married man and had a wife living back at home in the town of Stratford on-Avon).
The situation presented to us in the sonnets, taken collectively, is quite interesting, and even intriguing. It seems that the Earl of Southampton began to feel attracted by Shakespeare's mistress (the dark lady) and that, in course of time, was able to win her heart and wean her away from Shakespeare. The Earl of Southampton thus became guilty of betraying Shakespeare's trust in him.
The Earl of Southampton's behaviour naturally offended Shakespeare who thought that the young lord had let him down badly and that his mistress too had played him false. Shakespeare therefore began to nurse a grievance against both the guilty persons though he was unable to give up either of them.
The sonnets of the second group clearly show that, while Shakespeare severely condemns the dark lady for her treachery towards him, he still loves her passionately, though his love for her is merely sensual. And the sonnets of the first group show equally clearly that Shakespeare still continues to love and admire his friend.
In this connection it may also be pointed out that, considering the language of worship and adoration which Shakespeare has employed in addressing the Earl of Southampton, his friendship with that young lord might have been of a homosexual nature. The auythor of this book says: “The question ‘was Shakespeare gay?’ is so stupid as to be barely worth answering, but for the record: of course he was. Arguably he was a bisexual, of sorts; though for all the wives, mistresses and children I’m not entirely convinced by his heterosexual side. Mostly, his heart just wasn’t in it; when it was, his expressions of heterosexual love are full of self-disgust. The young man is often referred to by commentators as ‘the Fair Youth’ – one of those sly euphemisms that aestheticises WS’s relationship, and keeps everything just the right side of sodomy. I prefer ‘the Young Man’…”
In addition to all this, there is one other important theme, which seems to have become as great an obsession with Shakespeare as his friendship with the Earl of Southampton and his love for the dark lady had become. This theme is the power of Time. In fact, Time may also be regarded as a character in the entire drama which is enacted before our eyes in the sonnets.
Shakespeare repeatedly refers to the destructive power of Time; and he points out to his friend again and again the havoc which Time plays in this world. Time is depicted as the great destroyer. Nothing can withstand the assaults of Time. All things in this world, including youth and beauty, are subject to the destructive power of Time.
But there is another theme which is also quite important and which too receives a lot of emphasis from Shakespeare. This other theme is the greatness of Shakespeare’s own poetic genius. Shakespeare couriers a very high opinion about the sonnets which he has written, telling his friend several times, and with pronounced force, that these sonnets would preserve his friend's youth and beauty incessantly, and that these sonnets are therefore more influential even than Time. Time conquers everything, but these sonnets would eventually conquer Time, and would prolong the youth and beauty of his friend. These sonnets would continue to be scrutinized by all the coming generations and would thus keep his friend's name, distinction, and virtues alive for ever and ever. In view of this diversity and array of themes, these sonnets are for us a rich storehouse, and a rich treasure of ideas and feelings.
The light, which these sonnets throw on Shakespeare's own nature and temperament, greatly enlarges our knowledge of the great bard.
But all trifles apart, this is a book to be savoured leisurely. The author is bang on point when he says: “The Sonnets are next-to-impossible to read in one sitting. If you tried to, you wouldn’t be reading them well: they’re too various, and no normal human could make the crazy, poem-to-poem gear-changes in mood that WS demands without losing their mind. They are alternately beautiful, maddening, brutally repetitive, enigmatic, sweet, prophetic, pathetic, bathetic, triumphant, trite, wildly original, contorted, screamed, mumbled, plain-speaking, bewildering, offensive, disarming and utterly heartbreaking…”
Give this book a go.
As the author of this book tells us and we tend to come to an agreement with him that the central theme of the Sonnets taken together is the Bard’s abysmal love and reflective admiration for the Earl of Southampton. The first 126 sonnets contain many tributes to the Earl, and they also express Shakespeare's profound attachment to him, though a few of them contain his grievances against that eminent personage.
According to this book, another theme which emerges, more particularly in the sonnets of the second group (127-152), is Shakespeare's adulterous love-affair with the dark lady (adulterous because Shakespeare was a married man and had a wife living back at home in the town of Stratford on-Avon).
The situation presented to us in the sonnets, taken collectively, is quite interesting, and even intriguing. It seems that the Earl of Southampton began to feel attracted by Shakespeare's mistress (the dark lady) and that, in course of time, was able to win her heart and wean her away from Shakespeare. The Earl of Southampton thus became guilty of betraying Shakespeare's trust in him.
The Earl of Southampton's behaviour naturally offended Shakespeare who thought that the young lord had let him down badly and that his mistress too had played him false. Shakespeare therefore began to nurse a grievance against both the guilty persons though he was unable to give up either of them.
The sonnets of the second group clearly show that, while Shakespeare severely condemns the dark lady for her treachery towards him, he still loves her passionately, though his love for her is merely sensual. And the sonnets of the first group show equally clearly that Shakespeare still continues to love and admire his friend.
In this connection it may also be pointed out that, considering the language of worship and adoration which Shakespeare has employed in addressing the Earl of Southampton, his friendship with that young lord might have been of a homosexual nature. The auythor of this book says: “The question ‘was Shakespeare gay?’ is so stupid as to be barely worth answering, but for the record: of course he was. Arguably he was a bisexual, of sorts; though for all the wives, mistresses and children I’m not entirely convinced by his heterosexual side. Mostly, his heart just wasn’t in it; when it was, his expressions of heterosexual love are full of self-disgust. The young man is often referred to by commentators as ‘the Fair Youth’ – one of those sly euphemisms that aestheticises WS’s relationship, and keeps everything just the right side of sodomy. I prefer ‘the Young Man’…”
In addition to all this, there is one other important theme, which seems to have become as great an obsession with Shakespeare as his friendship with the Earl of Southampton and his love for the dark lady had become. This theme is the power of Time. In fact, Time may also be regarded as a character in the entire drama which is enacted before our eyes in the sonnets.
Shakespeare repeatedly refers to the destructive power of Time; and he points out to his friend again and again the havoc which Time plays in this world. Time is depicted as the great destroyer. Nothing can withstand the assaults of Time. All things in this world, including youth and beauty, are subject to the destructive power of Time.
But there is another theme which is also quite important and which too receives a lot of emphasis from Shakespeare. This other theme is the greatness of Shakespeare’s own poetic genius. Shakespeare couriers a very high opinion about the sonnets which he has written, telling his friend several times, and with pronounced force, that these sonnets would preserve his friend's youth and beauty incessantly, and that these sonnets are therefore more influential even than Time. Time conquers everything, but these sonnets would eventually conquer Time, and would prolong the youth and beauty of his friend. These sonnets would continue to be scrutinized by all the coming generations and would thus keep his friend's name, distinction, and virtues alive for ever and ever. In view of this diversity and array of themes, these sonnets are for us a rich storehouse, and a rich treasure of ideas and feelings.
The light, which these sonnets throw on Shakespeare's own nature and temperament, greatly enlarges our knowledge of the great bard.
But all trifles apart, this is a book to be savoured leisurely. The author is bang on point when he says: “The Sonnets are next-to-impossible to read in one sitting. If you tried to, you wouldn’t be reading them well: they’re too various, and no normal human could make the crazy, poem-to-poem gear-changes in mood that WS demands without losing their mind. They are alternately beautiful, maddening, brutally repetitive, enigmatic, sweet, prophetic, pathetic, bathetic, triumphant, trite, wildly original, contorted, screamed, mumbled, plain-speaking, bewildering, offensive, disarming and utterly heartbreaking…”
Give this book a go.
July 24, 2022
While idiosyncratic and occasionally absolutely wrong (sonnet 105 is much better than he says it is, and is much more desperate; the Dark Lady Sonnets are fabulous evocations of what it's like to be cosmically in love with someone who occasionally throws you a bone, rather than misogynistic rants), Don Paterson's reading of these poems is erudite, funny, and above all based on the POETRY.
Don Paterson is one of the UK's greatest living poets (his poem The Rat, from Landing Light, is probably one of the best poems of the last twenty years), and he takes the sonnets apart as having three meanings: 1) what does it tell us about the poem? 2) what does it tell us about the poet? 3) what does it tell us about us?
He therefore reads the poems as autobiographical, with WS stuck in the middle of a ghastly polyamorous-swinging-closeted-bisexual relationship, in which both of his lovers (and he) seem to have been both sexually and emotionally-spiritually unfaithful to everyone involved, and he (certainly from his own perspective) seemed to be getting the constant short straw, and felling miserable for most of it. That is why I take issue with Paterson's criticism of the Dark Lady Sonnets: they read to me like a man who is blaming all women because his particular woman won't give him the time of day (and I know a lot of men - not all of them clinical incels and misogynists - who have done that). They read as emotionally true: not because of what he's saying, but because "we've all been there" (maybe DP hasn't, but I would have thoughts most blokes have).
But what makes this fantastic is not the scholarship (though there is a lot of that, with him disagreeing with, or using ideas from, some very prominent experts on this) is the way he takes us through it as a working poet: he knows what it is like to create poetry from personal experience, and what it isn't like, and he uses his knowledge and understanding to create a reading of this poems that rings true.
The sonnets are not easy: this book makes them live.
Don Paterson is one of the UK's greatest living poets (his poem The Rat, from Landing Light, is probably one of the best poems of the last twenty years), and he takes the sonnets apart as having three meanings: 1) what does it tell us about the poem? 2) what does it tell us about the poet? 3) what does it tell us about us?
He therefore reads the poems as autobiographical, with WS stuck in the middle of a ghastly polyamorous-swinging-closeted-bisexual relationship, in which both of his lovers (and he) seem to have been both sexually and emotionally-spiritually unfaithful to everyone involved, and he (certainly from his own perspective) seemed to be getting the constant short straw, and felling miserable for most of it. That is why I take issue with Paterson's criticism of the Dark Lady Sonnets: they read to me like a man who is blaming all women because his particular woman won't give him the time of day (and I know a lot of men - not all of them clinical incels and misogynists - who have done that). They read as emotionally true: not because of what he's saying, but because "we've all been there" (maybe DP hasn't, but I would have thoughts most blokes have).
But what makes this fantastic is not the scholarship (though there is a lot of that, with him disagreeing with, or using ideas from, some very prominent experts on this) is the way he takes us through it as a working poet: he knows what it is like to create poetry from personal experience, and what it isn't like, and he uses his knowledge and understanding to create a reading of this poems that rings true.
The sonnets are not easy: this book makes them live.
July 14, 2018
This is so good! There are some really delightful & illuminating insights & interesting analyses, paired with a quite astonishingly casual & hilarious tone.
Most refreshing of all is Paterson's completely unshakable and insouciant interpretation of the sequence as being totally homosexual in intent. And why not? I love that he doesn't tie himself down with maybes. My favourite aside is "For god's sake man: use your imagination" - a big sigh of indignant impatience at the line "one thing [the boy's dick] to my purpose nothing".
The whole thing is juicy and thick with laugh-out-loud jokes too. How can he allow himself a gag about George Foreman so early on in the book? I love his ease, his lack of reverence. At one point he writes, "Then again, I wept yesterday at the end of Hotel For Dogs."Every now and then, the language of these asides is maybe a little tossed off (Adam Mars-Jones gave the book a beating in the Guardian) but overall I'm besotted with his give-a-fuck-ery, his pertness & wholeheartedness. Really fun & invigorating.
Most refreshing of all is Paterson's completely unshakable and insouciant interpretation of the sequence as being totally homosexual in intent. And why not? I love that he doesn't tie himself down with maybes. My favourite aside is "For god's sake man: use your imagination" - a big sigh of indignant impatience at the line "one thing [the boy's dick] to my purpose nothing".
The whole thing is juicy and thick with laugh-out-loud jokes too. How can he allow himself a gag about George Foreman so early on in the book? I love his ease, his lack of reverence. At one point he writes, "Then again, I wept yesterday at the end of Hotel For Dogs."Every now and then, the language of these asides is maybe a little tossed off (Adam Mars-Jones gave the book a beating in the Guardian) but overall I'm besotted with his give-a-fuck-ery, his pertness & wholeheartedness. Really fun & invigorating.
August 23, 2019
Don Paterson is becoming one of my favorite poets- contemporary or otherwise. This sonnet by sonnet commentary is billed as a free, casual language gloss on each one in turn but often the remarks sound like yelp reviews or stretch the limits of "you were there" biography. On the other hand, Paterson is a high functioning working poet to his fingertips, in DNA and every pore both instinctively and with all the learned craft and tradition. So occasionally, brilliant aperçus emerge. And maybe he's right about his speculations as one poet to another across the centuries. Either because of his commentary or because I was made to read them again I have a new high appreciation for sonnets that I had not thought of as the "greats" before: #s 53, 60, 113, 146. I look forward to reading his newly released book on poetry.
January 9, 2025
You don't finish this book, you keep it near the sonnets for when you're frightened or lost. Paterson is a cheeky bastard, often a bit too full of himself. He's the opposite of a humble, self-effacing disciple of the bard. He's quite often mean or at least unforgiving about the great man's sonnets (there are plenty that he doesn't like much or at least thinks are weak). And if he spots something lazy or manipulative in a sonnet he'll tell you. It's a fantastic read and a useful lesson in how to do criticism/analysis without being a dick. In fact I'd go so far as to say this is the best book about the sonnets (but there are obviously loads of them and I've only got a three or four so obviously you may want to seek a second opinion).
June 18, 2020
Paterson’s commentary seeks to appeal to those fed up with overly academic editions of Shakespeare’s sonnets and brands itself as a new kind of impressionistic edition for the layman. While Paterson’s interpretations are amusing at first, they tax the nerves. Contrarian at times, tacky at others, Paterson fails to illuminate any of the poems’ subjective or objective qualities, instead dragging the reader through a mire of hot takes. After slugging through the first 75 sonnets, I put this away and went back the trusty Arden.
September 11, 2017
An excellent book by Don Paterson giving you an insight to everyone of the Sonnets,what are the best and what are not so great,also he goes into detail about each one and makes them more enjoyable in the process.
April 12, 2018
Don Paterson added tremendously to my understanding of Shakespeare’s Sonnets and to Shakespeare himself. His treatment of Sonnet 135 totally floored me. I still haven’t managed to pick myself up. This is a great commentary!
September 3, 2017
thank you god for a commentary on the sonnets that is openly disdainful of heterosexuality. blessed.
October 10, 2020
Great fun!
November 1, 2015
I've enjoyed reading the Sonnets for a while now, but I wanted to understand a bit more about them. For this purpose, this is an excellent book. However, at times Paterson takes an overly critical view of Shakespeare, which some would say he is entitled to as a distinguished poet, and this can come across as harsh at times. Paterson holds Shakespeare to quite a high standard and, for me, this took away some of their magical qualities, undermining my opinion of them as masterpieces. Perhaps I was being naive to think so highly of the Sonnets, in which case, the Paterson's commentary did well to enlighten me as to their true nature. Overall, I'd recommend this book only to those who are happy to have their opinions of Shakespeare modified, otherwise, remember that ignorance is bliss.
May 3, 2014
This is a lovely book. I really enjoy his style. It's very refreshing. I have navigated and read his commentary on particular sonnets, so haven't finished the whole book yet, but it's a nice one for dipping in and out of. I really enjoy some of the history and background, both to them man himself and to the sonnets. The author has some very firm opinions about Shakespeare and he really brings it to life.
November 15, 2014
I have only ever read a couple of Shakespeare's sonnets before and never really saw myself sitting reading a book of 154 of them, never mind a couple of pages of commentary accompanying each one. However, Scottish poet Don Paterson conveys the innovation, technique and drama behind the sonnets making this book a curious page-turner. His commentaries are at times very funny and he brings an enormous amount of knowledge to the subject in an accessible and arresting way.
May 24, 2015
I picked this as a first taste of the Sonnets before starting with serious academic research, and I don't think I could have chosen better - witty, unpretentious, ruthlessly critical but still full of admiration and passion for the poems. An insight from an actual poet is such a refreshing change after all the linguists and literature experts, and while it may not be the sort of works to cite overly often in a PhD thesis it's in turn an absolutely wonderful and very personal guide.
January 9, 2015
This book includes the full text of each of the sonnets with Don Paterson's comments. Some of his remarks seemed overly flippant, but it encouraged the reader to look critically at each poem and contained a lot of information and comments on other expert's interpretations. Overall it was an excellent introduction to a critical appreciation of the sonnets.
July 30, 2014
Interesting, but a little too clever in tone for my taste.
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