Sonnet-chanted evening

By Jan Gardner  |  April 1, 2007

The Shakespeare Sonnet-thon is an evening of laughter, tears, trepidation, and joy. For four hours, dozens of volunteers -- ranging from children to octogenarians -- recite or sing the 154 sonnets written by William Shakespeare.

Published as a collection in 1609, the sonnets are rich in drama and relevance. The so-called Jewish-mother sonnet (number 71) opens: "No longer mourn for me when I am dead." One year a young actor in pajamas recited sonnet 27, beginning with "Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed," before he lay down on the stage with his teddy bear.

The sonnet-thon was started by Linda Lowy , director of Shakespeare Now! Theater Company , which brings live Shakespeare performances to schools. She was inspired by a sonnet class taught by Jonathan Epstein, a member of Shakespeare & Company in Lenox. As the sonnet-thon's master of ceremonies, he speaks on Shakespeare's life and recites a sonnet or two himself.

The fifth annual Sonnet-thon starts at 5 p.m. Wednesday at the Boston Public Library.

Poetry thrives at Linda and Phil Halpern's Brook Farm Inn in Lenox.

Built in 1882, the bed-and-breakfast was once the summer home of Constance Cary Harrison, a writer and New York socialite. To raise funds to erect the Statue of Liberty, she solicited literary works to be auctioned. Harrison persuaded her friend Emma Lazarus to write what became a well-known sonnet, the one that exhorts, "Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." In the 1970s, a descendant of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who had been a member of Brook Farm commune in West Roxbury, bought the property and gave it its current name.

The Halperns encourage browsing of the nearly 400 poetry books in the inn's library and host poetry readings for overnight guests (the next one is April 21). In addition, Linda Halpern, formerly a school librarian, posts a poem in the inn every day. She looks for verses appropriate to the season, such as "The Hazards of Tanglewood" at the height of summer.

"Words Without Borders: The World Through the Eyes of Writers" brings together poems, essays, and works of fiction from 21 foreign countries, most of it published in English for the first time.

Three local writers who contributed introductions to the anthology -- Andre Dubus III, Ha Jin, and Don Lee -- will speak at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Harvard Book Store, 1256 Mass. Ave., Cambridge.

"My Father's Secret War: A Memoir," by Lucinda Franks (Miramax)

"The End of the World as We Know It: Scenes From a Life," by Robert Goolrick (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill)

"Celebrity Secrets: Official Government Files on the Rich and Famous," by Nick Redfern (Paraview)

Mary Cotton of Newtonville Books recommends "The Littlest Hitler," by Ryan Boudinot (Counterpoint): "This unusual title has unusually pleasing stories inside, all of them electrified by Boudinot's comic genius. The stories are, by turns, filled with irony, anger, confusion, and tenderness, but always handled deftly by an author who understands that humor is what keeps us human."

Jan Gardner can be reached at JanLGardner@yahoo.com.