The Shakespearian Sonnet

The Shakespearean form of sonnet is written in what is called iambic pentameter (five groups of two syllables across a line with the second syllable in each group stressed). The rhyming pattern for the fourteen lines is abab cdcd efef gg, the last two lines being a rhyming couplet, which sometimes sum up the previous twelve.

I fell in love with the sonnet as a form of poetry when I was very young, but then I discovered that writing one was not as easy as it looks. I did not finally write my own until about ten years ago.

These two poems were written for my children for their birthdays. Each follows the pattern of Shakespeare’s popular Sonnet 18.

- Joan Vaughan-Taylor

Shakespeare's Sonnet No 18.

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometimes declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed:
But they eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall death brag thou wanderest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest.
So long as men can breath, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

To My Daughter

Shall I compare you to an English rose?
You are more special and resilient
The rose’s perfume titillates the nose
But cruel thorns belie its gentle scent.
Sometimes the fairest blossoms fall, too frail
From early worms that fed upon the bud
And fragile petals scatter in the gale,
While broken sterns lie dismal in the mud.
But you’re a flower of strength and shall not fade
Nor wither in the frost, nor in the sun
Nor time nor distance cut the links we’ve made
When you unwind the words that I have spun.
So long as you can read, or I can write
So long lives this, a sonnet for your sight.

To My Son

Shall I compare you to a precious gem?
You are too soft-hearted and too rare.
Those stones are hard set in a diadem
While imitation jewels sell everywhere.
Sometimes there’s rank corruption in a mine
To raise the wealth that often lies within.
That diamond necklace my look very fine
Yet feels a steely cold against the skin.
But you are warm and generous and kind
As partner, as a father, as a son.
Seeds of corruption can’t grow in your mind -
You’ve never been disloyal to anyone.
A sonnet by me, at your birthday time
Is more appropriate than Shakespeare’s rhyme.

Please sign up as a supporter of the Native Australian Culture, and of the work the Eureka Council is trying to do in preserving, teaching, enriching and celebrating that wonderful freedom and way of life.

We are not asking for your money in these hard times, but we are looking for your active support. We are also looking for activists who love their country, and our Native-Anzac Australian Culture enough to want to write letters, make phone calls, and stir the possum generally for the purpose of seeing our Native Australian heritage and culture preserved and enriched. When we work together in a co-ordinated way, we can make a difference for the better. Sign up here