Ten Key Shakespeare Sonnets – with Don Paterson

Shakespeare didn’t invent the English sonnet – but he transformed it into the most flexible, versatile and psychologically insightful form in poetry. In this two-hour webinar, Don will explore ten poems that show how Shakespeare turned the sonnet from a stylised love-poem into something technically daring, emotionally complex and often startlingly modern – and which can accommodate any subject the poet chooses. Don will also show how the Sonnets form a narrative of the progress of love and sexual obsession, metaphysics and time, consider what they reveal about Shakespeare's own personality and imagination, and look closely at the extraordinary craft behind their effects. He’ll ask what practising poets can still learn from Shakespeare's techniques and habits of attention – and look at what contemporary readers might gain from reading him just as they would a living author.

This workshop is for:

• poets of all levels

• all serious readers of poetry,…