Boston Athenæum

February 5, 2015 at the Boston Athenæum. Shakespeare’s Sonnets comprise the greatest single work of lyric poetry in English, as passionate, daring, intimate, and fiery as any love poems we may encounter. But they are often misunderstood: as W. H. Auden wrote, “more nonsense has been talked and written, more intellectual and emotional energy expended in vain, on the sonnets of Shakespeare than on any other literary work in the world.” Ideas of Order instills pleasure in this extraordinary verse, revealing an underlying narrative within the 154 poems that illuminates the work—providing a guide that inspires a new understanding of this complex masterpiece. Neil L. Rudenstine makes a compelling case for the existence of a dramatic arc within the work through an expert interpretation of the poems in relationship to each other: the jealousies, petty squabbles, reconciliations, discoveries, and longings. The sonnets show us a poet in turmoil who falls for a young man who returns his affections—and the love is utter