24/05/2012 | 6 Comments

Dame Judi Dench reads Sonnet 116

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Photo: Lewishamdreamer

The first tweet I saw when I logged on this morning was that Dame Judi Dench, C.H. had just read a Shakespeare sonnet on the B.B.C. Radio 4 ‘Today’ programme. I’d missed it but wanted immediately to know which one she’d read.

Her voice is exactly well suited to these poems: intimate, multi-textured, lyrical.

Dame Judi is also an Honorary Fellow of The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, and so here she is reading Sonnet 116.

Of course, by the time I’d looked it up, Dame Judi was already trending on Audioboo… You can listen to her reading by clicking on the sound-post below.

listen to ‘Dame Judi Dench reads a Shakespeare sonnet’ on Audioboo

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Author:Paul Edmondson

Head of Research and Knowledge and Director of the Stratford-upon-Avon Poetry Festival for The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Follow Paul on Twitter @paul_edmondson
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  • Listened to this 4 times. A truly great reading of a Shakesperian sonnet that gives pause for thought.

  • Pingback: The DF Eye on Shakespeare – 28/05/2012 « Acting Shakespeare()

  • Valda

    To be in the presence of Shakespeare’s words is to be in the presence of greatness. 

  • Wonderful. Not obsessed by her reading, but great to be reminded of an extraordinary bit of verse.

  • How wonderful – we love Judi here at Charlecote and are thrilled that she will be visiting us again soon. She is coming as part of the NGS Open Gardens birthday event on 16th June!

  • OOH AHHH!!!!  Goosebumps!!!

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