Friday, April 18, 2014

Got me a sonnet

Oh yeah baby, I am reading Shakespeare's Sonnet #21 in public, in Central Park next Friday, April 25. I signed up for the 4th Annual Shakespeare's Birthday Sonnet Slam some days ago, but was on the waiting list because all the sonnets were spoken for - but then somebody dropped out. So I got this bad boy:
So is it not with me as with that Muse, 
Stirred by a painted beauty to his verse, 
Who heaven itself for ornament doth use 
And every fair with his fair doth rehearse, 
Making a couplement of proud compare 
With sun and moon, with earth and sea's rich gems, 
With April's first-born flowers, and all things rare, 
That heaven's air in this huge rondure hems. 
O let me, true in love but truly write, 
And then believe me: my love is as fair 
As any mother's child, though not so bright 
As those gold candles fixed in heaven's air: 
Let them say more that like of hearsay well; 
I will not praise that purpose not to sell.
I like it! I'm not saying I would refuse to trade it for Sonnet 147 (the subject of my monologue) or Sonnet 151 (the inspiration for my first sonnet) but still, it's one of the better Sonnets - at least it isn't one of those where he's telling the Fair Youth to go make babies, cause that got pretty old after awhile.