Writing 154 Shakespeare Sonnets With My Left Hand

Mar 17, 2026 - Updated Jul 27, 2026

With a few minutes of practice a day, you can pick up any number of odd skills. This time, I’m learning to write with my spare hand.

Unlike those poor left-handed children in history books, I, in the present-day, overgrown and right-handed, do this of my own volition and I plan to enjoy it. And what a coincidence! Shakespeare has a training arc’s worth of sonnets.

Each of these 14 line love poems take around 10 minutes to copy, which is short enough that I have a chance of perservering each day for the next 5 months. I’m using a drawing tablet and my vibe-coded writing reanimation tool to record my writing and track my improvement in speed (words per minute) and tidiness (subjective).

Here is my handwriting from March, 17, 2026, writing the same phrase at a comfortable speed.

Right hand21.8 wpm
Left hand7.1 wpm

There’s a full gallery of all 154 days, but the condensed version is below. See my speed each day and my favorite sonnet from each week.

Week by week

Week 1Mar 17 – Mar 23
1
7.7
2
8.2
3
8.4
4
8.0
5
8.6
6
9.3
7
9.5
21.8 right hand
Sonnet 28.2 wpm
Week 2Mar 24 – Mar 30
8
9.1
9
10.1
10
9.2
11
9.0
12
8.8
13
10.4
14
9.5
Sonnet 128.8 wpm
Week 3Mar 31 – Apr 6
15
9.6
16
10.6
17
9.6
18
9.0
19
9.0
20
9.8
21
9.4
Sonnet 189.0 wpm
Week 4Apr 7 – Apr 13
22
8.5
23
9.4
24
9.5
25
9.4
26
10.3
27
9.7
28
10.3
Sonnet 2610.3 wpm
Week 5Apr 14 – Apr 20
29
9.7
30
10.5
31
10.6
32
10.5
33
11.4
34
10.6
35
10.7
Sonnet 299.7 wpm
Week 6Apr 21 – Apr 27
36
10.0
37
9.9
38
10.4
39
9.7
40
9.8
41
10.7
42
9.3
Sonnet 429.3 wpm
Week 7Apr 28 – May 4
43
9.6
44
9.7
45
10.6
46
10.8
47
9.8
48
8.9
49
10.5
Sonnet 449.7 wpm
Week 8May 5 – May 11
50
10.5
51
10.3
52
10.7
53
8.6
54
11.7
55
12.4
56
12.0
Sonnet 5210.7 wpm
Week 9May 12 – May 18
57
12.5
58
11.2
59
10.4
60
11.4
61
11.0
62
10.4
63
10.6
Sonnet 6210.4 wpm
Week 10May 19 – May 25
64
11.1
65
11.4
66
10.9
67
11.7
68
11.5
69
11.5
70
10.9
Sonnet 6511.4 wpm
Week 11May 26 – Jun 1
71
11.1
72
11.9
73
11.2
74
11.3
75
12.4
76
12.3
77
12.0
Sonnet 7111.1 wpm
Week 12Jun 2 – Jun 8
78
11.9
79
11.4
80
11.4
81
11.4
82
10.9
83
11.1
84
12.0
Sonnet 7911.4 wpm
Week 13Jun 9 – Jun 15
85
11.1
86
11.4
87
11.3
88
12.1
89
12.0
90
11.6
91
12.0
Sonnet 9112.0 wpm
Week 14Jun 16 – Jun 22
92
11.9
93
12.4
94
12.7
95
12.6
96
12.3
97
10.7
98
12.4
Sonnet 9412.7 wpm
Week 15Jun 23 – Jun 29
99
11.3
100
11.8
101
12.3
102
12.1
103
13.5
104
12.8
105
11.9
Sonnet 9911.3 wpm
Week 16Jun 30 – Jul 6
106
14.1
107
13.6
108
13.0
109
12.7
110
14.3
111
14.6
112
14.2
Sonnet 10614.1 wpm
Week 17Jul 7 – Jul 13
113
14.0
114
13.4
115
13.7
116
14.8
117
14.8
118
15.0
119
14.9
Sonnet 11614.8 wpm
Week 18Jul 14 – Jul 20
120
14.8
121
15.1
122
15.9
123
15.2
124
15.6
125
15.0
126
15.2
Sonnet 12415.6 wpm
Week 19Jul 21 – Jul 27
127
14.5
128
14.6
129
14.4
130
15.1
131
14.1
132
16.3
133
16.1
Sonnet 13015.1 wpm
Week 20Jul 28 – Aug 3
134
15.7
135
16.3
136
15.8
137
15.7
138
16.8
139
16.3
140
14.8
Sonnet 13516.3 wpm
Week 21Aug 4 – Aug 10
141
16.2
142
16.8
143
18.4
144
17.4
145
16.5
146
17.1
147
16.6
Sonnet 14516.5 wpm
Week 22Aug 11 – Aug 17
148
15.8
149
14.7
150
18.5
151
16.7
152
16.2
153
15.9
154
17.0
Sonnet 15417.0 wpm

Day by day

Speed (words per minute)
Time spent writing (minutes)

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. Shakespeare’s Sonnets from The Folger Shakespeare. Ed. Barbara Mowat, Paul Werstine, Michael Poston, and Rebecca Niles. Folger Shakespeare Library, Mar. 17, 2026. https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/shakespeares-sonnets/

Misc

For the words per minute calculation, words are 5 letters and pauses longer than 2 seconds are excluded.

I referenced the Poetry Foundation website to write the first three sonnets, which has different punctuation. For consistency however, all text, and all other writing shown uses The Folger Shakespeare version.