How many will join the Challenge?



Take a look around and get creative - make a video, audio, dance, or sculpture - anything you like!

Contact Nathan: sonnetchallenge [AT] gmail [DOT] com

Saturday, February 26, 2011

March Sonnet Schedule

Here's the schedule for the month of March (beware those Ides :-) - let's get out sonnets ON!

Week of March 1st: 40

Week of March 7th: 3

Week of March 14th: 149

Week of March 21st: 93

Week of March 28th: 73

As always - feedback, comments and creativity are welcome!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Day 58 - Sonnet #9: procreation, innuendo, immortality, regret

email/feed users: if you don't see videos below, please click on the post title to access the site




And a cool musical version!



Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye,
That thou consum'st thy self in single life?
Ah, if thou issueless shalt hap to die,
The world will wail thee like a makeless wife,
The world will be thy widow and still weep,
That thou no form of thee hast left behind,
When every private widow well may keep,
By children's eyes, her husband's shape in mind:
Look what an unthrift in the world doth spend
Shifts but his place, for still the world enjoys it;
But beauty's waste hath in the world an end,
And kept unused the user so destroys it:
No love toward others in that bosom sits
That on himself such murd'rous shame commits.

As always - feedback, comments and creativity are welcome!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Day 57 - Sonnet #61: jealousy, love, sleep, accusations, justifications, torment

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Mike Ackerman makes another appearance here - excellent interpretation of the sonnet!




Cool song made from the lines - nice work here, too!




Another fun interpretation!




Is it thy will, thy image should keep open
My heavy eyelids to the weary night?
Dost thou desire my slumbers should be broken,
While shadows like to thee do mock my sight?
Is it thy spirit that thou send'st from thee
So far from home into my deeds to pry,
To find out shames and idle hours in me,
The scope and tenure of thy jealousy?
O no, thy love though much, is not so great,
It is my love that keeps mine eye awake,
Mine own true love that doth my rest defeat,
To play the watchman ever for thy sake.
For thee watch I, whilst thou dost wake elsewhere,
From me far off, with others all too near.

As always - feedback, comments and creativity are welcome!

Saturday, February 12, 2011

February Sonnet Schedule

Here's the schedule for the rest of February - let's get out sonnets ON!

Week of February 14th: 61

Week of February 21st: 9

Week of February 28th: 40

As always - feedback, comments and creativity are welcome!

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Day 56 - Sonnet #147: personification, love, mistress, torment, infatuation

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thanks to these awesome students for their contribution to the challenge!




and here are a few other interpretations...




a rap! many suggest that Shakespeare's structure is very similar to modern day hip-hop



musical version:







My love is as a fever longing still,
For that which longer nurseth the disease,
Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill,
Th' uncertain sickly appetite to please:
My reason, the physician to my love,
Angry that his prescriptions are not kept
Hath left me, and I desperate now approve,
Desire is death, which physic did except.
Past cure I am, now reason is past care,
And frantic-mad with evermore unrest,
My thoughts and my discourse as mad men's are,
At random from the truth vainly expressed.
For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright,
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.

As always - feedback, comments and creativity are welcome!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Day 55 - Sonnet #129: dark lady, hate, innuendo, personification, passion

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So I mention that this sonnet is written from the male perspective - what do you think about that (whether you're male or not)? Is it accurate?



Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action, and till action, lust
Is perjured, murd'rous, bloody full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust,
Enjoyed no sooner but despised straight,
Past reason hunted, and no sooner had
Past reason hated as a swallowed bait,
On purpose laid to make the taker mad.
Mad in pursuit and in possession so,
Had, having, and in quest, to have extreme,
A bliss in proof and proved, a very woe,
Before a joy proposed behind a dream.
All this the world well knows yet none knows well,
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.

As always - feedback, comments and creativity are welcome!