On Monday, April 25, 1989, Professor Gary Bouchard walked onto the quad in front of the new statue of Saint Anselm to lead the campus in a reading of all 154 of Shakespeare’s Sonnets in celebration of William’s birthday. Around 75 readers took part in the reading, and New Hampshire Public Radio was there to record them. Professor Landis Magnuson surprised everyone in full Elizabethan regalia; The Union Leader was there to capture it all. Professor Edward Comiskey, former Director of the Abbey Players, turned out to read #154 to finish the celebration. It was the start of a great Anselmian tradition; no matter the weather, Saint Anselm would continue hosting the event each year on Shakespeare’s birthday. 

This year on April 23, Saint Anselm College celebrated Shakespeare’s 460th birthday with its annual sonnet reading at the new Grappone Humanities Institute. Bouchard stated, “We [looked forward] to debuting our 36th annual sonnet reading this year on the new Sonnet Stage on the east side of the Grappone Humanities Institute. April 23 is the date of Shakespeare’s birth and death, so besides the fun of the festival, there is also an elegiac quality to it as well.” 

In addition to remembering William Shakespeare’s life, the College honored all the people who have recited Shakespeare’s sonnets throughout the past thirty-six years, especially those who have since passed away. Many names of past readers are engraved on the stones of the new Grappone Sonnet Stage. Dr. Gary Bouchard, Professor of English and founder of the event, said, “We remember many sonnet readers from the past three-and-a-half decades who have passed on. And many of the bricks on the sonnet stage memorialize these people and keep them in our memories. Three quatrains and a couplet, one after another, 154 times—sometimes in other languages, sometimes by first-time readers, sometimes by people who have read every year for a long time.” In addition to the sonnets, there were recitations and performances, the awarding of the 2024 Whipple Scholarship for 18th Century Studies, and Humanitas, the journal of student writing and art, was unveiled. 

In reflection of his time hosting the event, Bouchard said, “Bouchard said, “It is hard to believe I started this by going out in front of Alumni Hall in 1989 and joining all the people I had talked into reading, and away we went. All these years later, our own stage and so many memories. Still, the sonnets are the sonnets. Love, death, time, and beauty. They age well, those things.”