10 Fun Shakespeare Resources Online

William Shakespeare (whoever he or she really was) is alive and well on the Internet.

Want a play date with Shakespeare online? Feeling the itch to get in touch with your inner bard? Does your heart yearn to hear a sonnet sung to you? Or perhaps you just need to hurl an insult the way only Shakespeare can.

Enjoy this great list of links to online Shakespeare resources.

And if  you have another, be sure to tell us about it in the comments.

1. David Gilmore of Pink Floyd Sings Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18

Getting started on a musical note, enjoy this truly beautiful rendition of “Sonnet 18” sung by David Gilmore. The song was recorded as part of a larger project including musical and dramatic performances of Shakespeare’s sonnets.

2. How Shakespearean Are You?

Think you have what it takes to talk like the Bard? Drop some of your prose or poetry into this Shakespearean text analyzer and see how much like Shakespeare you really are.

3. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 Read by Stephen Fry

Stephen Fry reading any poetry is a treat. But Stephen Fry reading Shakespeare’s backhanded Sonnet 130 is extra fun. Mischievous smirk thrown in at no extra charge.

4. Sling Insults the Shakespeare Way

Wondering how best to insult the “misbegotten clay-brained gudgeon” in the cubicle next to you? Look no further than the Shakespearean Insulter. Guaranteed to leave you “not lost so poorly in your thoughts.”

5. Shakespeare Thesaurus

Maybe you don’t want to insult your coworker, but you’d just like to beef up your Shakespearean quotient in the text analyzer. Let the Shakespeare thesaurus suggest words for you from this searchable lexicon of over 30, 000 terms. And if you’d like to take it a step further, the website houses the complete works of Shakespeare, with over 400, 000 in-line definitions.

6. The Shakespeare Files: Annotated Sonnets

Discover the meaning of the Sonnet Matrix, learn how Shakespeare used cynical enjambment, and find out what the Ides of March had to do (or not) with Sonnet 104 in our growing collection of annotated sonnets.

7. Shakespeare on Twitter

Reading all of Shakespeare’s works feels a little daunting? Follow Willy Shakes on Twitter and get bite-sized pieces (just 140 characters each) right in your newsfeed, every 10 minutes until all 112, 000 lines have been read.

8. 5-Year-Old Reads the “St. Crispin’s Day Speech” from Henry V

And then there’s always the five-year-old who has to out-do everybody. This little fella reads the “We Happy Few” speech like you’ve never heard it before.

9. How to Write a Sonnet Infographic: The Art of a Quatrain Wreck

Ever try to write a sonnet? Did it feel like a quatrain wreck? Our infographic is a handy illustrated guide to writing a Shakespearean style sonnet. Shakespeare doodle included.

10. Common Core Picture Poems

Of course Shakespeare makes an appearance in our collection of Common Core Picture Poems, with this simple interpretation of Sonnet 73.

Photo by Beggs. Creative Commons license via Flickr.

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Will Willingham

Director of Many Things; Senior Editor, Designer and Illustrator at Tweetspeak Poetry

I used to be a claims adjuster, helping people and insurance companies make sense of loss. Now, I train other folks with ladders and tape measures to go and do likewise. Sometimes, when I’m not scaling small buildings or crunching numbers with my bare hands, I read Keats upside down.

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