Day 34 - Sonnet #19

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And here are a couple of other people with the sonnet - awesome!






Devouring Time blunt thou the lion's paws,
And make the earth devour her own sweet brood,
Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws,
And burn the long-lived phoenix, in her blood,
Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleet'st,
And do whate'er thou wilt swift-footed Time
To the wide world and all her fading sweets:
But I forbid thee one most heinous crime,
O carve not with thy hours my love's fair brow,
Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen,
Him in thy course untainted do allow,
For beauty's pattern to succeeding men.
Yet do thy worst old Time: despite thy wrong,
My love shall in my verse ever live young.

As always - feedback, comments and creativity are welcome!

September Sonnet Schedule

Hey hey-

Warm temperatures are still here, but the fall is quickly approaching!

Here's the SONNET SCHEDULE for SEPTEMBER - let's get our sonnets ON!

Week of September 6th: 92

Week of September 13th: 103

Week of September 20th: 51

Week of September 27th: 153


As always - feedback, comments and creativity are welcome!

Day 33 - Sonnet #52

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So am I as the rich whose blessed key,
Can bring him to his sweet up-locked treasure,
The which he will not every hour survey,
For blunting the fine point of seldom pleasure.
Therefore are feasts so solemn and so rare,
Since seldom coming in that long year set,
Like stones of worth they thinly placed are,
Or captain jewels in the carcanet.
So is the time that keeps you as my chest
Or as the wardrobe which the robe doth hide,
To make some special instant special-blest,
By new unfolding his imprisoned pride.
Blessed are you whose worthiness gives scope,
Being had to triumph, being lacked to hope.

As always - feedback, comments and creativity are welcome!

Day 32 - Sonnet #128

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Musical interpretation:



Visual presentation:



How oft when thou, my music, music play'st,
Upon that blessed wood whose motion sounds
With thy sweet fingers when thou gently sway'st
The wiry concord that mine ear confounds,
Do I envy those jacks that nimble leap,
To kiss the tender inward of thy hand,
Whilst my poor lips which should that harvest reap,
At the wood's boldness by thee blushing stand.
To be so tickled they would change their state
And situation with those dancing chips,
O'er whom thy fingers walk with gentle gait,
Making dead wood more blest than living lips,
Since saucy jacks so happy are in this,
Give them thy fingers, me thy lips to kiss.

As always - feedback, comments and creativity are welcome!

Day 31 - Sonnet #101

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O truant Muse what shall be thy amends,
For thy neglect of truth in beauty dyed?
Both truth and beauty on my love depends:
So dost thou too, and therein dignified:
Make answer Muse, wilt thou not haply say,
'Truth needs no colour with his colour fixed,
Beauty no pencil, beauty's truth to lay:
But best is best, if never intermixed'?
Because he needs no praise, wilt thou be dumb?
Excuse not silence so, for't lies in thee,
To make him much outlive a gilded tomb:
And to be praised of ages yet to be.
Then do thy office Muse, I teach thee how,
To make him seem long hence, as he shows now.


As always - feedback, comments and creativity are welcome!

Sonnets for August, Check-In & Update

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Hey everyone-

Can't believe it's already been 10 weeks and 30 sonnets - yayuh! :-)

I thought this would be a great chance to check-in and give peeps some info on what's ahead and where I want to go with this challenge (though ALWAYS excited to hear your thoughts and suggestions)!




So I hope you're excited about what's comin' up. Here's the schedule for the rest of this month - let's get our sonnets ON!

Week of August 9: 101

Week of August 16: 128

Week of August 23: 52

Week of August 30: 19


As always - feedback, comments and creativity are welcome!

Day 30 - Sonnet #1

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Welcome to Day #30 and the end of week #10 - very excited to be here and thanks for checking out the Challenge!

I've included a musical interpretation of the sonnet, Geilgud's reading and a couple other people trying it out! All very cool. Thanks for watching and hope you join in the fun!




Musical interpretation:



Sir John Geilgud:



Others having fun:





From fairest creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beauty's rose might never die,
But as the riper should by time decease,
His tender heir might bear his memory:
But thou contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thy self thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel:
Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament,
And only herald to the gaudy spring,
Within thine own bud buriest thy content,
And tender churl mak'st waste in niggarding:
Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.

As always - feedback, comments and creativity are welcome!

Day 29 - Sonnet #29

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How Fortune smiles upon us - #29 on Day 29!

And I've decided to bring more people into the Challenge who have already put themselves out there by scouring online for more videos! Pretty cool stuff out there! Take a look and then join up! :-)

I've added Matthew Macfadyen, Rufus Wainwright, an ASL version, a short film, and a few other brave folks!

And in addition to all the videos, we also have a choral submission from The Antaeus Company and the William Tell Aggeler Opportunity High School (Chatsworth, CA). The collaboration connected at-risk students with Shakespeare's at-risk characters. These teenagers, many of whom have been convicted of felonies and all of whom have faced what most of us would perceive as insurmountable obstacles, worked with the ensemble members on the text. Below is their rendition of #29 - very awesome and thanks to Antaeus for sending the audio over!

Of course what I have is just a handful of what's out there - if there are other versions you'd like me to add, or have one you want to add, check out the "How To Upload" page above. Any questions - just send me an email!

Aggeler Audio:

a cool word cloud from a poetry blog: http://lv17.wordpress.com/2009/01/27/sonnet-29-william-shakespeare/

When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon my self and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least,
Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven's gate,
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings,
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

As always - feedback, comments and creativity are welcome!

Day 28 - Sonnet #125

Were't aught to me I bore the canopy,
With my extern the outward honouring,
Or laid great bases for eternity,
Which proves more short than waste or ruining?
Have I not seen dwellers on form and favour
Lose all, and more by paying too much rent
For compound sweet; forgoing simple savour,
Pitiful thrivers in their gazing spent?
No, let me be obsequious in thy heart,
And take thou my oblation, poor but free,
Which is not mixed with seconds, knows no art,
But mutual render, only me for thee.
Hence, thou suborned informer, a true soul
When most impeached, stands least in thy control.

As always - feedback, comments and creativity are welcome!