“Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts, / Into a thousand parts divide one man”

[larryhammer]

For Poetry Monday, how about a self-conscious sonnet:


Shakespearean Sonnet, R.S. Gwynn

A man is haunted by his father's ghost.
A boy and girl love while their families fight.
A Scottish king is murdered by his host.
Two couples get lost on a summer night.
A hunchback murders all who block his way.
A ruler's rivals plot against his life.
A fat man and a prince make rebels pay.
A noble Moor has doubts about his wife.
An English king decides to conquer France.
A duke learns that his best friend is a she.
A forest sets the scene for this romance.
An old man and his daughters disagree.
A Roman leader makes a big mistake.
A sexy queen is bitten by a snake.


Gwynn is a contemporary New Formalist, if you didn't know.

---L.

Subject quote from The Life of King Henry the Fifth, Prologue, William Shakespeare.

Comments

[cmcmck]

I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking this way! :o)



Mr Eliot Meets Mr Shakespeare

The wind moans under the eaves
And Winter, cold fingered, gropes
About the house once more

'Now is the Winter of our discontent'

The fire warms itself in the grate
And flames, warm fingered
Rub themselves like old men's hands

'Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow'

The fog stalks cold around the house
And mist, light fingered,
Feels every gap, like a blind man.

'I see thee, yet I have thee not'

Wind, fire and fog about grey stone.
Ivy, fickle fingered scans the storied slab
Like life's poor player who struts and frets,

'And then is heard no more'

[sovay]

A Roman leader makes a big mistake.
A sexy queen is bitten by a snake.

I've read this one before, but still like it.

[thistleingrey]

wow.

[larryhammer]

Heh.

[larryhammer]

I like a well-done cento. (Not that this is one, technically, but it partakes of the difficulty of the form.)

[larryhammer]

Impressive, innit?