Story Behind The Song
While performing as a member of a troop of Shakespearean actors, I set to music a number of pieces from the Elizabethan period, and earlier, that were a part of a recitation play we performed, originated by the Royal Shakespeare Company, called - The Hollow Crown. The poems I was assigned to recite in the piece, I decided to set to music and accompany myself on a twelve string.
Song Description
Set to music by Cindy Hite, exactly as it was written with nothing added or subtracted, Shakespeare's Sonnet 29 is one of The Bard's most beautiful and beloved sonnets. It decries the habit of allowing one's insecurities and feelings of envy, to ruin the joys that one already possesses - most especially the priceless gift of a devoted lover.
| Song Length |
2:06 |
Genre |
Unique - Unclassified, Folk - Rock |
| Tempo |
Medium Fast (131 - 150) |
Lead Vocal |
Duet Female |
| Mood |
Exultant, Content |
Subject |
Madly In Love, Hope |
| Similar Artists |
Sarah Mclachlan, The Eurythmics |
Language |
English |
| Era |
Before 1600 |
| |
Lyrics
Sonnet 29, by William Shakespeare set to music by Cindy Hite
When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring of this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate:
For thy seet love rememb'red such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.