Long-Lost Shakespeare Sonnet Discovered In London

Long-Lost Shakespeare Sonnet Discovered In London
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The London office of a literary 'zine finds an undiscovered Shakespearean poem, and it raises some new questions about the Bard

London: A long-lost Shakespearean work has been discovered in London, posing some new questions about the Bard.

The editors of the award-winning speculative fiction publication Space Squid have announced their London office has found an overlooked quarto which contains a sonnet apparently written by William Shakespeare. The sonnet has been verified by at least one literary academic, Martin W. Kevorkian, associate professor and associate English department chair at the University of Texas at Austin.

"We were unsure of the proper way to share our discovery with the public, but Professor Kevorkian offered to travel to London and verify our findings," says publication co-founder Matthew Bey.

"Knowing the reputation of Space Squid, I initially wanted to debunk 155," Kevorkian admits. "But when I saw the words on the page, and had a few hours to absorb them, I was convinced. It's all there, the perfect phrasing, the complete command of tone and word choice, the precision and power. There's no doubt in my mind that this is his work."

As is the custom for Shakespearean sonnets, the poem's title is taken from the first line, which is "My sky boat's heart is stokéd by the sun." In the poem, the author writes of his "sky boat," a craft which he uses to obtain "verse from stranger climes" where "wealth is wrought with words and skillful pen." Taken literally, the poem seems to claim that the narrator has used the vessel to visit places "that England's never seen" -- perhaps even to visit other planets.

"For me, the poem is purely an elegant flight of fancy," argues Squid editor Matthew F. Amati. "To postulate that Shakespeare traveled to other planets is, frankly, laughable. In this era of Fake News, we need to be careful about speculation that edges into Fake Poetry."

Editor-in-chief D Chang, however, disagrees. "Some of us have long theorized that Shakespeare employed some kind of craft to travel to distant planets and grift work from their inhabitants in a primitive form of cultural imperialism. If he'd only known how to properly enslave cultures, he could have changed the world."

Kevorkian says, "[The sonnet is] brilliantly conceived and sharply executed.

"To read 155 is to be reunited with an old, dear friend. Thank you, Space Squid, and thank you, William Shakespeare."

The full text of the sonnet has been published at http://www.spacesquid.com/shakespeares-lost-sonnet.