Sonnets of His Tears
Brooding thoughts escaped
circumference in his brain
to scratch…ink black…
from sharpened quills
across dun parchment sheets…
“Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye
and all my soul, and all my every part;
and for this sin there is no remedy……”*
And then…
“When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
and trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries……”**
Self-love…self-pity…angst…soak through centuries
and wring to consciousness the sonnets of his tears.
How much is pretense…how much is true…
how much is for effect…remain a mystery.
One sonnet is cautionary. I’d prize it on a shelf.
Yet… the other I’d memorize to cherish in my mind
as pure gold investment for deep troubled times.
Bonnie Marshall
*Shakespeare/de Vere, “Sonnet 62:1-3”
**Shakespeare/de Vere, “Sonnet 29:1-3”
Proem... 
ink black…
from sharpened quills
across dun parchment sheets…
What lovely lines. I’m interested that you credit the quotes to Shakespeare/ de Vere. Do you think there’s credence to that theory?
Sally, you are thoughtful to mention lines, and I appreciate that very much. I know there are just six signatures in William’s handwriting of anything. No letters, poems, anything. Hmmm…
I think I want to believe in the Shakespeare fairy tale 🙂
When I respond to poetry, I like to pick out something that resonates for me and comment on that, however briefly. So often it is single phrase that causes me to catch my breath. And I know how hard it can be to get a phrase just right.
You are an elegant and eloquent writer, Sally. Right you are about the Shakespeare 🙂
There is absolutely no credence whatsoever to the man from Stratford. Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford wrote the Shakespeare canon. That’s by balanced opinion 🙂
Only six scraggly Shakespeare signatures on legal matters. Hmm…