The poetry ensemble Live Canon will be performing a selection of poems from its specially-commissioned anthology on Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets on 4 November at Oxford Playhouse.  

To celebrate Shakespeare’s 400th anniversary, Live Canon invited 154 contemporary poets to respond to the 154 sonnets. Each new poem sits facing the sonnet from which it took inspiration.

The new poems include Abigail Parry’s response to “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”. Her poem, ‘Shakespeare in Space’, begins: “Shall I compare thee to the Milky Way?” and concludes: “But ah, my little quark, so charmed and strange, / There’s not one atom of you I would change.”  

Another well-known sonnet that begins: “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” has this response from Mab Jones: “You’re no Armani advert, babe, less buff / than Mr Bean, with arms like bits of string / and legs like sticks.” It concludes: “You’re less Mighty Mouse than Minnie, / so it was a surprise that, while you’re small / my love for you is big. Babe, you are my all.”

Meanwhile James Trevelyan responds to the sonnet that begins: “In faith I do not love thee with mine eyes” with a poem titled “Nor do I want to abuse my delicate sense of touch by groping you.”  

You can see the full list of contributing poets and order a copy of the anthology here