ELISSA NADWORNY, HOST:
Socrates warned against writing things down. He said it was an invention that weakened the strength of our memories – similar to the warnings about AI weakening our minds. Humans do have a staggering capacity for memory. We once memorized not only which plants were edible but could recite poems like the “Iliad” over the course of days. We wanted to talk to a super memorizer, so we called William Sutton. The actor and teacher has memorized all 154 of Shakespeare’s sonnets. He joins us from Amsterdam. Hello.
WILLIAM SUTTON: Hello, there.
NADWORNY: So 154 sonnets by your namesake, William Shakespeare.
SUTTON: That’s correct.
NADWORNY: And you know all of them?
SUTTON: Yeah.
NADWORNY: Is there one that particularly resonates with you?
SUTTON: Yeah. There’s definitely one that resonates with me. The most famous one is Sonnet No. 18 – right? – which is, “Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer’s Day?” Most people got that one at school.
NADWORNY: I think I learned that in the seventh grade.
SUTTON: Right? It’s an English class favorite. But No. 81, that’s my one.
NADWORNY: (Laughter) OK. Let’s hear it.
SUTTON: OK. Here we go.
(Reciting) Or I shall live your epitaph to make, or you survive when I in Earth am rotten. From hence, your memory death cannot take, although in me, each part will be forgotten. Your name from hence, immortal life shall have. Though I, once gone, to all the world must die. The Earth can yield me but a common grave. When you entombed in men’s eyes shall lie, your monument shall be my gentle verse, which eyes not yet created shall o’er-read. And tongues to be, your being shall rehearse. When all the breathers of this world are dead, you still shall live. Such virtue hath my pen, where breath most breeds, even in the mouths of men.
NADWORNY: Wow.
SUTTON: That’s Sonnet 81. And the first time I heard that final couplet, that just felt to me like the most complete prediction and the immortality through poetry. I literally looked behind me when I first read that.
NADWORNY: (Laughter).
SUTTON: I thought he was there.
NADWORNY: Wow. What do you think is, like, kind of the greatest, like, love of the sonnets?
SUTTON: The one line that really just gets me every time is in Sonnet No. 108.
(Reciting) So that eternal love in love’s fresh case weighs not the dust and injury of age. Nor gives the necessary wrinkles, but makes antiquity for I his page.
Just the lightness of the dust. It – I mean, it feels like it’s accumulating on my hand as I say it.
NADWORNY: What made you want to memorize so much Shakespeare?
SUTTON: To prove to the other actors that I could memorize Shakespeare, I guess.
NADWORNY: (Laughter).
SUTTON: When I first had the idea, oh, yeah, I’m going to learn them all. I (vocalizing). I did not realize how much work it actually was.
NADWORNY: Do you think memorizing Shakespeare helps you memorize other things?
SUTTON: Yeah. I do. I also believe that just memorizing Shakespeare is just good for your soul.
NADWORNY: How do you do that? Like, how do you remember it all?
SUTTON: It’s come to the point where it’s now ingrained. It’s now there. A bit like an AI, I need a prompt.
NADWORNY: (Laughter).
SUTTON: You know, somebody needs to say something that will remind me of it, and I’ll say, ah. And then I just lock in, and off we go.
NADWORNY: And do they mean something to you? Like, are you thinking while you’re memorizing? Are you hearing the words you’re saying, or is it kind of like tapping into…
SUTTON: Yeah.
NADWORNY: …A robot brain?
SUTTON: I believe that your heart and brain should be connected when you’re reciting poetry. When you memorize them, it becomes yours. It’s like, you know, teaching sonnets to people, first time through, they understand nothing. By the third time through, they’re getting an idea, but it still takes another 30 times before they go like, ah, I think I understand that bit. And then once they’ve got it, once they’ve made it their own, it’s theirs forever.
NADWORNY: You know, we live in this world where everything’s coming at us so fast. You’re scrolling on social media. Our brains are just – our attention span is so low.
SUTTON: Yes. I mean, that is absolutely the case. I bemoan the – the mediums that we have at the moment, it’s just so quick. It’s so easy. It’s so – and so unfulfilling. It’s like fast food for the brain. And with something like this, it feels like I’m chewing. It feels like I’m actually getting some fiber. It feels like I’m actually getting some vitamins inside me.
NADWORNY: (Laughter).
SUTTON: So in that sense, it does spur you on to want to learn more.
NADWORNY: Yeah.
SUTTON: Can I give one final couplet? ‘Cause this is what I think the sonnets are about also.
NADWORNY: Of course.
SUTTON: (Reciting) So shalt thou feed on death that feeds on men. And death once dead, there’s no more dying then.
NADWORNY: (Laughter).
SUTTON: Nice one. That was the final couplet of Sonnet No. 146.
NADWORNY: That’s William Sutton in Amsterdam, who has memorized all 154 sonnets by William Shakespeare. Thank you so much, William.
SUTTON: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
