
SONNETCAST – William Shakespeare's Sonnets Recited, Revealed, Relived
by Sebastian Michael
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Recent episodes
Special Guest: Professor Phyllis Rackin — Shakespeare and Women
Jul 20, 2025
Unknown duration
Sonnet 36: Let Me Confess That We Two Must Be Twain
May 21, 2023
Unknown duration
Sonnet 35: No More Be Grieved at That Which Thou Hast Done
May 14, 2023
Unknown duration
Sonnet 34: Why Didst Thou Promise Such a Beauteous Day
May 7, 2023
Unknown duration
Sonnet 33: Full Many a Glorious Morning Have I Seen
Apr 30, 2023
Unknown duration
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| Date | Episode | Description | Length | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7/20/25 | ![]() Special Guest: Professor Phyllis Rackin — Shakespeare and Women | In this special episode, Phyllis Rackin, Professor Emerita of English from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and former president of the Shakespeare Association of America talks to Sebastian Michael about the position of women in Elizabethan society, about William Shakespeare's relationship with the women in his life, and about what we can and cannot know specifically of the Dark Lady in his Sonnets. | — | ||||||
| 5/21/23 | ![]() Sonnet 36: Let Me Confess That We Two Must Be Twain | With the curious Sonnet 36 William Shakespeare appears to be either inverting the guilt and shame that the previous three sonnets have laid upon the young man for his evident transgression and projecting it directly on himself, or to be uncovering a new source of scandal that gives him reason to suggest – borderline disingenuously, it might seem – that they dissociate themselves from each other, even though in the same breath it also emphatically confirms the love they hold for each other. | — | ||||||
| 5/14/23 | ![]() Sonnet 35: No More Be Grieved at That Which Thou Hast Done | With his tormented, paradoxical, and sensationally revealing Sonnet 35, William Shakespeare absolves the young man of his misdeed and puts what has happened down to nothing in the world being perfect, not even he. It is the third in this set of three sonnets that might be considered a triptych, and with it, Shakespeare appears to resign himself into the triangular complexity his relationship with the young man has acquired, while dropping a nugget of information that to us comes as something of a poetic bombshell. | — | ||||||
| 5/7/23 | ![]() Sonnet 34: Why Didst Thou Promise Such a Beauteous Day | The devastated and devastatingly powerful Sonnet 34 picks up from where Sonnet 33 wanted to not only leave off but let go, and like a second wave of pain and mourning asks the young man directly why he has allowed the gorgeous sunshine of this relationship to be cast over with appalling weather. And unlike Sonnet 33, it not only tries, but apparently succeeds at forgiving the young man's conduct, paving the way for an even more conciliatory Sonnet 35, principally – and most tellingly – prompted by the young man's apparent response to being so called out. | — | ||||||
| 4/30/23 | ![]() Sonnet 33: Full Many a Glorious Morning Have I Seen | With Sonnet 33 a new phase begins in the relationship between William Shakespeare and the young man. The storm clouds that gather in this poem are a direct and intentional metaphor for the turbulence the two face, as the young man has clearly gone and done something to upset his loving poet. What exactly this is, the sonnet doesn't tell us, but it is obvious that Shakespeare is hurt and disappointed, whilst trying to rationalise the young man's behaviour in a way that makes some sort of sense to him. | — | ||||||
| 4/23/23 | ![]() Sonnet 32: If Thou Survive My Well-Contented Day | The wryly ironic Sonnet 32 marks a caesura in the canon, as it sits right between a development arc in the relationship that spans the sequence uninterrupted from Sonnet 18 to Sonnet 31, while giving nothing away of the entirely new phase the relationship enters with the storm clouds that gather in Sonnet 33. In tone, in attitude, in self-evaluation, it gains access to a register different to any that has gone before and quite unlike any that is soon to come, and so it stands out, rather, for being really quite unique. | — | ||||||
| 4/16/23 | ![]() Sonnet 31: Thy Bosom Is Endeared With All Hearts | With the astonishingly bold, borderline brazen Sonnet 31, William Shakespeare strikes a completely new tone and tells both his young lover and us things he has not revealed before. It comes as close as we have seen thus far to declaring a physical component to their relationship, and in doing so opens an entirely new chapter with a whole different dynamic. | — | ||||||
| 4/9/23 | ![]() Sonnet 30: When to the Sessions of Sweet Silent Thought | Sonnet 30 picks up on the theme of Sonnet 29 and develops the "sweet love remembered" there into a reminiscence about lost love, missed opportunity, and failed aspirations, among which again it is the thought of the young man that has the power, here not so much to simply lift the spirit and therefore the state of mind and heart, but to restore the losses suffered and to end the sorrows they have brought – to, in essence, heal. | — | ||||||
| 4/2/23 | ![]() Sonnet 29: When in Disgrace With Fortune and Men's Eyes | One of the most celebrated poems in the canon, Sonnet 29 casts William Shakespeare in a state of deep and lonely unhappiness, from which the memory of his young lover is able to lift him in spectacular fashion. By continuing the theme of weariness and dejection established by the previous two sonnets, it confirms our notion of Shakespeare being on the road, away from the young man, but rather than focusing on a longing desire to be with him, it rejoices in the love experienced before. | — | ||||||
| 3/26/23 | ![]() Sonnet 28: How Can I Then Return in Happy Plight | Sonnet 28 continues on from Sonnet 27 and develops the thought further, elaborating on the ways day and night appear to conspire to make William Shakespeare's struggling life a misery, as he travels away from his young lover. While it does not tell us anything that is in that sense new, it produces a layered internal dialogue that gives us a great sense of the poet's state of mind and disposition of heart. | — | ||||||
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| 3/19/23 | ![]() Sonnet 27: Weary With Toil, I Haste Me to My Bed | Sonnet 27 is the first of several sonnets in which Shakespeare laments the fact that he is away from his young lover, thus answering the question posed indirectly by Sonnet 26 as to who is on the move. And while this sonnet can stand on its own, with a fully formed and perfectly concluded argument, it does come as a pair with Sonnet 28, which follows on directly from it and which, by contrast, relies on this sonnet to be properly introduced. The two should therefore be looked at together, and we will do so when we get to Sonnet 28. | — | ||||||
| 3/12/23 | ![]() Sonnet 26: Lord of My Love, to Whom in Vassalage | The obsequious, so as not to say startlingly submissive, Sonnet 26 radically changes the tone and therefore our perception of the constellation between William Shakespeare and the young man: gone is the confidence of Sonnet 25, gone, even, is the complexity of Sonnet 24 and the uncertainty of Sonnet 23, long gone seems the joy and exuberance of Sonnet 18. With Sonnet 26, William Shakespeare effectively withdraws, resets, and almost apologises for having been presumptuous in his declarations of love. | — | ||||||
| 3/5/23 | ![]() Sonnet 25: Let Those Who Are in Favour With Their Stars | The at once defiant and celebratory Sonnet 25 is the first in the series to tell us something about William Shakespeare's own situation in life, and it also makes an astonishingly bold claim on the young man, newly asserting not only that the two of them belong together, but that they are inseparable. | — | ||||||
| 2/26/23 | ![]() Sonnet 24: Mine Eye Hath Played the Painter and Hath Stelled | With the complex and in its conclusion quietly insightful Sonnet 24, William Shakespeare looks more closely at what is happening between him and the young man whom he has declared his passion for, and he does so in a tone that manages to be both hopeful and realistic – so as not to say resigned – at the same time. It spreads the short shadow of doubt that Sonnet 23 had already tentatively cast over the relationship, but it still does so in the subtlest of ways, leaving plenty of room for the renewed optimism that will follow briefly with Sonnet 25. | — | ||||||
| 2/19/23 | ![]() Sonnet 23: As an Unperfect Actor on the Stage | The simultaneously self-conscious and also cautiously confident Sonnet 23 counsels the young man in the art of love, and in doing so it becomes the first one in the series to signal an uncertainty on William Shakespeare's part about the level to which the young man's love for him matches his own, in both degree and sophistication. And it is also the first sonnet to tell us that while Shakespeare still fully believes in the power of his written words, he has a tendency to become tongue-tied when in the presence of his young lover. | — | ||||||
| 2/12/23 | ![]() Sonnet 22: My Glass Shall Not Persuade Me I Am Old | The superficially traditional and almost a little wistful sounding Sonnet 22 is the first one to address the age difference between William Shakespeare and his young lover, and it is also the first one to expressly show us that – certainly as far as the poet is concerned and believes to be able to understand – this love is mutual and reciprocated. Which makes this the third sonnet in quick succession to give us invaluable insights into Shakespeare's emotional world. | — | ||||||
| 2/5/23 | ![]() Sonnet 21: So Is It Not With Me as With That Muse | The distinctive and sincere Sonnet 21 stands out as the first in the series in which William Shakespeare addresses an unspecified general 'audience' to talk about his love – as opposed to the young man directly, or a personified concept, such as time – and it is also the first one to reference the poetry of somebody else ,or of other people. It therefore marks an especially significant stage in the development of the relationship and a notable new stance with which Shakespeare positions himself towards his love and the outside world. | — | ||||||
| 1/29/23 | ![]() Sonnet 20: A Woman's Face, With Nature's Own Hand Painted | The fabulously frank and somewhat saucy Sonnet 20 takes the proverbial bull by the horn and leads it straight to the elephant in the room, addressing head on the fact that the person I, the poet, am here in love with is a young man; and it confirms one of the principal clues we were given earlier as to the young man's identity, which two facts together make this one of the most important sonnets for our understanding of the Fair Youth and Shakespeare's relationship with him so far. | — | ||||||
| 1/22/23 | ![]() Sonnet 19: Devouring Time, Blunt Thou the Lion's Paws | The heartfelt, somewhat self-conscious, but defiant and confident Sonnet 19 underlines the bold assertion I, the poet, William Shakespeare, made in Sonnet 18: that it is my poetry itself that gives life to the young man who receives these sonnets, and thus preserves his youth forever. | — | ||||||
| 1/15/23 | ![]() Sonnet 18: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day? | One of the most famous sonnets in the canon, Sonnet 18 bursts onto the scene with an energy, confidence, and message all of its own, setting the tone for a whole new kind of relationship and putting the poetry itself centre stage. It is one of the easiest to understand – which may in parts account for its immense popularity – and it is utterly delightful in its unabashed affirmation of life. | — | ||||||
| 1/9/23 | ![]() The Procreation Sonnets | The Procreation Sonnets are something of a conundrum: they are entirely clear in their intention, in their message, and in their poetic purpose, they stand at the beginning of the originally published sequence, and yet at first glance they seem to fit nowhere properly. And more than anything else – and more than many if not most of the other sonnets that we have of William Shakespeare’s – they raise the basic question: why? Why does William Shakespeare at some point in his life take time out of what cannot have been anything other than a busy schedule to tell a young man to produce an heir? What concern is the young man of his? And who is the young man? In this Special Edition of SONNETCAST, Sebastian Michael, author of The Sonneteer, summarises what the Procreation Sonnets tell us so far about William Shakespeare and the recipient of the first 17 Sonnets... | — | ||||||
| 1/2/23 | ![]() Sonnet 17: Who Will Believe My Verse in Time to Come | The intricate, self-aware, and in places truly tender Sonnet 17 is the last one to advise the young man to produce some offspring, which makes it the last of the Procreation Sonnets, and it segues smoothly into entirely different and really new territory where William Shakespeare as the poet begins to take centre stage right next to the man he has been writing these sonnets for. | — | ||||||
| 12/26/22 | ![]() Sonnet 16: But Wherefore Do Not You a Mightier Way | The riveting and really rather irony-infused Sonnet 16 directly follows on from Sonnet 15 and completes the argument set up and semi-resolved there. And while Sonnet 15 can just about stand on its own – with, as we have seen, quite thrilling significance for how it then can be read – Sonnet 16 absolutely needs to be read with Sonnet 15 for it to make sense. | — | ||||||
| 12/20/22 | ![]() Sonnet 15: When I Consider Every Thing That Grows | With the somewhat suggestive, slightly cheeky, and categorically confident Sonnet 15, William Shakespeare taps into a whole different register that positions him as the poet in a whole new relationship towards the young man he is writing to, and with astonishing effect. | — | ||||||
| 12/12/22 | ![]() Sonnet 14: Not From the Stars Do I My Judgement Pluck | The at first glance curiously anticlimactic Sonnet 14 seems to take us a step back in any real or supposed trajectory that the sonnets so far have described, but it nevertheless offers an intriguing insight into the constellation between the poet and the young man, and may in fact hide more than meets the eye. | — | ||||||
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Chart Positions
3 placements across 2 markets.
Chart Positions
3 placements across 2 markets.

























