Introducing Sonnet Explorer
I’m writing my first blog post in six years (!) to introduce Sonnet Explorer – an interactive guide to all 154 of Shakespeare’s sonnets, designed to make them more accessible to the casual reader.
Right now you can:
- search the full corpus to surface sonnets that mention particular images or ideas
- mix-and-match filters for themes, moods and literary devices
- jump to a surprise poem with Select Random Sonnet whenever you feel like wandering
Clicking into a sonnet opens a workspace that pairs the original text with a modern paraphrase so you can flip between them line by line. Every archaic or technical word is annotated – hover and you’ll get a definition without leaving the page. I’ve also used AI to write short commentaries that explain why each poem matters, what’s happening narratively, and which bits of rhetoric or bawdy wordplay to listen for.
Sonnet Explorer also tries to make connections explicit. Each page recommends “Similar Sonnets” (complete with the relevant sequence arc tags) and shows how closely they match, so it’s easy to trace motifs like absence, lust or spiritual anxiety across the collection.
This is very much a work in progress. Over the next month I’m planning to expand the commentary, tighten up the mobile layout and add more quantitative context (think metrical oddities and historical notes). For now though, the whole sequence is browseable, searchable and annotated – and I’d love to hear what you think before the next round of improvements lands.
