Sonnet 27
(Sonnet XXVII)

SONNET XXVII was originally written for a trio of singers and piano for the Southwold Summer Festival Cabaret in 2010. It has subsequently been performed and recorded with upper voices and piano, as well as a version including rhythm trio and string orchestra for a broadcast of BBC Radio 2’s “Friday Night is Music Night” to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in 2016.

The poem is a favourite of the composer’s wife Kathryn, and was sent to him while he was on an eight-week tour of the US with The Swingle Singers before their wedding in 1989.

Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;
But then begins a journey in my head, 
To work my mind, when body's work's expired:
For then my thoughts (from far where I abide) 
Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee, 
And keep my drooping eyelids open wide, 
Looking on darkness which the blind do see: 
Save that my soul's imaginary sight 
Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,
Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night, 
Makes black night beauteous and her old face new.
   Lo, thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind,
   For thee, and for myself, no quiet find. 

William Shakespeare