Notes on the Sonnets

by Luke Kennard

A Poetry Book Society Recommendation

Shortlisted for the 2021 Forward Prize for Best Collection

Luke Kennard recasts Shakespeare's 154 sonnets as a series of anarchic prose poems set in the same joyless house party.

A physicist explains dark matter in the kitchen. A crying man is consoled by a Sigmund Freud action figure. An out-of-hours doctor sells phials of dark red liquid from a briefcase. Someone takes out a guitar.

Wry, insolent and self-eviscerating, Notes on the Sonnets riddles the Bard with the anxieties of the modern age, bringing Kennard's affectionate critique to subjects as various as love, marriage, God, metaphysics and a sad horse.

'Luke Kennard has the uncanny genius of being able to stick a knife in your heart with such originality and verve that you start thinking "aren’t knives fascinating... and hearts, my god!" whilst everything slowly goes black.'- Caroline Bird

Genres: Poetry, Fiction

212 pages, Paperback

First published April 22, 2021

Reviews

[Silas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt rather torn when rating this collection. I love prose poetry, simply as a rule, and this is a great example of the format. I may have even found a favourite poem or two in this collection, but still I just couldn’t get over how much other fatuous gibberish clogged up the experience. Perhaps it’s rather invidious of me but, noticing how well reviewed it is by others, I decided I’d bring down the average rating just a tad.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My neighbour's latest (he is prolific), and an excellent read. I'm going to re-read with the sonnets handy, although the writing is not always directly about the sonnets, they are the starting point and often the theme of each prose-poem. Set during an all night house party these are funny, daft, loving and acute, featuring a sad horse, a crying philosopher and someone kissing trees. Somehow - their diffidence/defensive humour? - they seem very English. If someone asked me to point them to a book that summed up what it was like to be English, I might say this one.

[Isabel Sebode · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of my favourite pieces of literature ever! each page holds so much life, making the most of kennard’s poetic endeavour. perhaps i adore the book because i self-indulgently find myself in it; on the other hand, kennard’s writing ensures that every person in their early 20s will resonate with his prose-poetry. honestly fantastic - a shakespearean houseparty

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finished this yesterday and forgot to mention it, so... oops?
This poetry is wonderful, and there are some really beautiful moments. However - I think because of the way in which I read it (very broken up) - the overall meaning was lost on me. It felt disjointed and marginally pretentious because of that disjointedness.
I do thoroughly intend on re-reading when not in the midst of uni, though.

[Veera · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a lovely collection that’s like 50% self-help, 50% cool poetry that isn’t really poetry but Diary entries??

Also we stan the Sad Horse.

[James Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

had to read again now that luke and i are best friends -- still 5 ⭐️

[Anete Beinarovica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is the perfect example of why more attention should be paid to smaller independent publishing houses. From the moment you get your hands on it, you can see and feel how much attention has been given to every single detail. It's absolutely lovely from inside and out, giving you the feeling that you're not reading it, but having a conversation with a friend. At a house party, about Shakespeare. But mostly about tons of other stuff.
One of the books you want to hug before you put it back on the shelf (I totally did).

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

As many times as I didn't understand what was going on, there were many more where I was laughing out loud. The first collection in a long time that's just demanded I see it though to the bitter end.

It also made me want to
a) Read the Sonnets and
b) Go to house parties.

[Caspar "moved to storygraph" Bryant]

There are so many questions but what an endeavour and a highly inhabitable prose poetry it's a nice reference point thank you luke

[Tony · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm afraid this just wasn't my cup of tea. Perhaps I had too high expectations based on the reviews I'd read and the fact that it won the Forward Poetry Prize in 2021. I read all the other shortlisted collections for that year's Prize and this was the one I enjoyed the least.

It's isn't a bad book. There were some poems I liked a lot and Kennard can be funny too. The collection is...well...let me use Kennard's own short introduction:

All of this takes place at the same
house party. The order of the sonnets
is determined by events. They are to be
seen as improvisations, or annotations,
or variations. [On Shakespeare's Sonnets]

I'm not sure I can put my finger on quite why I didn't enjoy it as much as I expected, which is frustrating.

Look, sometimes you just aren't in the right mood for a book. Sometimes you're not on the author's wavelength. Sometimes you just think...look Shakespeare took fourteen lines to make his point and your reflections are solid blocks of words. It's like Kennard has taken a literary hammer to crack a literary nut.

The one good thing was it made me read Shakespeare's Sonnets again. I read the Sonnet, read Kennard's take, read the Sonnet again and then read Kennard. Sometimes I felt I got something more from the original Sonnet after reading Kennard's take - I'm thinking of Sonnet 89 for example. Sometimes I didn't.

So, to cut this short it just wasn't my cup of tea. I can see its qualities. I can admire the craftsmanship but it just didn't give me that buzz that I get from poetry I like. It felt like an intellectual exercise, which I could admire but not love.

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best collection I've read in months. It's unafraid of its ambiguity; I couldn't tell you how the poems within relate to Shakespeare's Sonnets, nor necessarily what is happening scene to scene. The setting of the house party comes and goes and certain elements of logic are frequently called into question. Ultimately, I'm not sure this matters. Kennard writes with such strong originality and hits upon a tender note that resonated strongly with me. It feels to me like a collection about connection, as the speaker's interactions with and descriptions of those around him provide some of the most funny and poignant moments throughout. The way in which the speaker talks about their children is especially affecting. Don't let the occasional feeling of being halfway down the rabbit hole put you off. Highly recommend.

[Em Jay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nice try but I kept thinking how much better a better poet would have done it.

[Ella · Rating 3 out of 5]

this collection was described as anarchic from the get-go, which I appreciate, but it was so anarchic to me that I found it hard to find meaning or even enjoyment from it a lot of the time. I liked a lot of the melancholia and nihilism and existentialism that permeated the book and particularly the one response to 'let not winter's ragged hand deface' that I first saw 2 years ago. what on earth was the 'sad horse' character though? it was so absurd and kind of seemed to be like what bojack horseman is, though he did dispense some excellent kernels of wisdom. while I loved the carousel of characters and ideas and emotions that come in from a houseparty, I thought that this book was perhaps a bit too long in sketching out the length of time for one. all-in-all it was an interesting read but it confused me a lot of the time.

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dryly funny and full of wit. Shame about the at times stumbling pace. Hats off to the premise though — completely original and incredibly stupid in the absolute best way.

[Emily Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0 flat. I actually loved this. Particularly ‘We used to believe the moon was dying (107)’

Really appreciate the humour and beauty in banality that Kennard weaves throughout. Brilliantly done and executed, clear grasp of the reader/audience. There was one point where I thought “okay this is dragging a bit now” and the next line I’d read was ‘God, I’m tired, why’d I even set out to write so many of these things.’

Made me want to go back and re read Shakespeare’s sonnets.

[Sofia · Rating 3 out of 5]

"So what's required of us, when we find someone embarrassing, is to love them".

I found this a bizarre collection, written almost like a stream of consciousness.
And although some parts did not resonate with me there were others that were witty, moving and highly impressive.

[Manuel López · Rating 3 out of 5]

These notes include some very good literary images. Surprisingly they do not really comment on or explain the sonnets by Shakespeare, the Sonnets are but a starting point to the wandering mind of Luke Kennard.

[AJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes a little pretentious and overly complicated, but sometimes so clear and precise that it feels like reading a diary.

Weird that more people haven't read this - a unique way to get to grips on the themes of the sonnets.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I book I will definitely be reading again and again.

[Em · Rating 4 out of 5]

“All of this is to say I made someone my religion and it was terrible for me, for them and for religion generally.”

[Charlotte Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

*1.5

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

No idea what this has to do with the sonnets... Funny tho

[Kenny · Rating 1 out of 5]

Vogon poetry.

[Izzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

believe the hype about how skilful this is but also i struggle to connect with poetry that is so often this impenetrable??

[Stevens Memorial Library]

Jess finished Notes on the Sonnets!

[Valeria Burgos · Rating 5 out of 5]

que bueno no saber nada de shakespeare. inside of you there are two horses one is happy the other sad.

[emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Update : Dec '24/ Jan '25

‘—do not overlook the fact that time passes differently for all of us. If you compare the birdsong of a single bird at various stages in the bird’s life you'd see it.’ — from ‘How like a winter hath my absence been’ (97)

Still wonderful, to 'say' the least. Might have to make it/this a yearly thing/read. Did I (already) mention that I don't even consider myself a 'fan' of Shakespeare?

-----------------------------------------------

2021/2023

Funny how the latte has become one of the laziest class signifiers, as if every dead high-street didn't contain at least two Costas. — from Sonnet 37

A late review, this (understatement). Forgot to write one, and decided I would like to do one. But I’ve definitely re-read it a few times now because more than anything Kennard’s poems make me laugh, smile, scoff, or something in between all of that, a bit of everything; well whatever it is, they’ve always left me with bubbly feelings. Make of that what you will.

I want you to feel loved and known or known and loved or, failing that, because really who can expect such extravagance, I want the ache to be transfigured into something you can use. Otherwise, knowing that you exist, that at this moment you are waiting for a train, that you have had to start the same page again because you weren't concentrating, that you are tired, that if someone asked you something they would get to hear your voice. — from Sonnet 37

I think I like this collection a little better than Cain. That one’s bit battered, and bruised with a lot of re-reading now (definitely dog-eared beyond recovery) because I’ve sometimes let friends keep it for a little while, got it back; and also brought it with me when I travelled/moved? Don’t have much else to say other than I’ve always liked Kennard’s writing. Still do. And will probably always try to get myself a copy of anything written by him.

Left a couple ‘sonnets’ (/prose poems?) from this collection below for anyone who wants a bit of an introductory taste. I like one a little more than the other (at this moment). But maybe tomorrow I’ll like the one I like less now a little more than the one I like a little more today. But who knows? In any case, I feel differently about them every time I read them (again). And that’s the only way I want to read/experience them (again and again).

‘The hearts, roughly the size of footballs on chicken legs, running blindly through a forest. The hearts, hunted for sport. The hearts, factory-farmed for food. The hearts, kept idiosyncratic pets by rich idiots. The hearts sitting as at miniature school desks in front of a whiteboard with a diagram of a brain on it. The hearts, breast-feeding in a dimly lit room just to keep them quiet not because they're hungry. The hearts, asking for the same song over and over again. The hearts, finally exclaiming What more do you fucking want from me? The hearts, drinking wine from hourglasses. The hearts standing outside their wood-frame houses while a heart with a clipboard unloads a truckload of hearts and says, Here are the hearts you ordered. The hearts trying to explain their process because you did ask even though they can tell they're boring you. The hearts letting their hair down for once. The hearts, at a sleepover playing Never Have I Ever. The hearts, I'm done, I'm done, I'm done, sorry.’ — Sonnet 22

‘When I read the 'About' section about bands and fantasise about being in a band I like to fantasise about being the member of the band who, following the lead singer's side-project gaining traction and taking up an increasing amount of their attention, is taking indefinite time out to focus on my health. I imagine the drummer calling me one day, on my landline, and asking how I'm doing. I live in a wood-frame house and I have a small dog I take for very short walks on the beach. Mostly I wear a towel gown over my blue striped pyjamas. In the evenings I drink low- alcohol beer. I should probably head out and buy a bunch of cleaning products because everything is running low. I'm good, I say, I'm good, Brandon, thank you for checking in, thank you for reaching out. I'm finally reading library books. I feel tired all the time, but I sleep a lot, and the small dog gets me out every day to take the air. I eat a lot of cereal because you can get a lot of nutrients from cereal. I'll ask Brandon how things are going on the road and he'll say, Oh, you know.’ — Sonnet 122