Sonnet 29 to a “Fair Youth”

 A beautiful sonnet performed beautifully by the inimitable Judi Dench

I remember during the pandemic Judi Dench read some Shakespeare and people were in tears watching because we are so starved for poetry, for romance, for beauty. “This is what we stay alive for.” pic.twitter.com/3bq4oad8eT

— Owl! at the Library 😴🧙‍♀️ (@SketchesbyBoze) October 1, 2024

Read the lines along with her below:

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 myself, 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 myself 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. 

There has been much speculation over the identity of the “Fair Youth” alluded to in the poem.

Sir Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton

Although Shakespeare's contemporary Sir Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton (augmented portrait above) has been postulated and then discounted as the sonnet's subject, I used AI to make some fanciful conjecturing on what he might look like today as an actor.

AI modern renderings of Sir Henry W.