Now this is Sonnet 29 recited properly — it’s Welsh actor Ben Crystal at the 2014 Sonnet Slam in New York. (I am linking here to the Willful Pictures Youtube channel.)
I like Crystal’s conversational style and the way that he appears to address the audience directly. He “speaks” the poem, instead of ostentatiously reciting it it. It reminds me of the performances in The Guardian’s “Shakespeare Solos” series — particularly the readings by Eileen Atkins and David Morrissey.
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.
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 