Sonnets in Performance

Shakespeare's sonnets were written to be read aloud, and performers keep bringing them to new audiences through theater, film, and social media. Patrick Stewart recorded all 154 during COVID lockdown, and musicians from Rufus Wainwright to Florence Welch have set them to music.

The form itself stays remarkably alive. Poets from Terrance Hayes to Don Paterson still work within its 14-line frame, proving Shakespeare's implicit argument: structure does not limit creativity but focuses it, the way a riverbank gives water direction and power.