Learning in Retirement Series: Dr. Michael Bonin • Shakespeare's Sonnets: Literature's Greatest Enigma

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Many of Shakespeare’s sonnets, such as “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day” and “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun,” are amongst the greatest and best-known poems in the English language. But they remain a tantalizing enigma to scholars. How did they come to be published? To whom were these love poems written? What, if anything, do they tell us about Shakespeare himself? You know our methods, Watson. We will look into these sonnets and see if, as Wordsworth declared, “. . . with this key/Shakespeare unlocked his heart.”

Michael Bonin holds a Ph.D. in English from UCLA. He taught Shakespeare, Milton, and Renaissance literature at Gonzaga University, where he served as chair of the English Department and won the university’s teaching award. He was awarded an English Speaking Union fellowship to study Shakespearean performance at the Globe Theatre in London, and has written scholarly articles, given lectures, and curated a museum exhibit about Shakespeare.