Monday, May 4, 2020

Some of My Favorite Sonnets

My Favorite Shakespearean SONNETS

SONNET 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove.

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wand'ring bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come;

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me prov'd,

I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.

Sonnet XVIII

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 sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Sonnet XXIX

When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Sonnet LXXIII

That time of year thou mayst in me behold

When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang

Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,

Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.

In me thou see'st the twilight of such day

As after sunset fadeth in the west;
Which by and by black night doth take away,

Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire,

That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed, whereon it must expire,

Consumed with that which it was nourish'd by.

This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,

To love that well, which thou must leave ere long

The Angelic Conversation

read by Judi Dench

Benedict Cumberbatch 7 Ages of Man

SONNET 75

So are you to my thoughts as food to life,

Or as sweet-season'd showers are to the ground;

And for the peace of you I hold such strife As 'twixt a miser and his wealth is found; Now proud as an enjoyer and anon Doubting the filching age will steal his treasure,Now counting best to be with you alone, Then better'd that the world may see my pleasure;Sometime all full with feasting on your sight And by and by clean starved for a look; Possessing or pursuing no delight, Save what is had or must from you be took.Thus do I pine and surfeit day by day, Or gluttoning on all, or all away.

Alan Rickman reads

Sonnet 130

Vision (In The World of the Blind)

Vision

( In The World Of The Blind)

Peering through the darkness growing

I saw the forms of men

Running in the black winds blowing

Their banners raised for sin

Rounding up the innocents

Rallying the troops

Separating goats and lambs

To isolated groups

Whistleblowers silencing

Preachers preaching truth

Scandalized and smeared with lies

Without an ounce of proof

I saw the evil rising

To rooftops and to sky

Spreading chaos through the land

As the blind embraced the lie

Oceans full of grief and greed

Sweeping out the earth

Bringing death to young and old

That never knew new birth

Bullets flying, children crying

Blood running in the street

While drug cartels, the spawn of hell

Walked by on spotless feet

Politicians shaking hands

Making dirty deals

Bought and paid for in back rooms

From power broker shills

Taking from the average Joe

Taking from the salt

Of earth, those good and godly folk

Whose souls cannot be bought

And in the penthouses of the world

Sipping cold champagne

The idol makers strategize

To give their puppets fame

(It's all about the wealth and gold

It's all about the choice

To let them tell you what to say

While they use your voice)

I saw the wars on paper planned

The calculated death

The skies so full of chemicals

You could hardly draw your breath

Marching to the hospitals

Begging for the drugs

I couldn't tell in that sick hell

The housewives from the thugs

Plans and schemes and shattered dreams

Lay scattered on the ground

While hope went up in ashes

And hopelessness came down

And men in thousand dollar suits

Tore down the nations' borders

And bowed before the entities

From which they take their orders

I saw there in the Spirit's light

The plan of old so clear

I felt the cold breath on my neck

The Devil stood so near

Like ants beneath his feet are men

Disposable, obtuse

He drains their souls, throws them away

When there is no more use

I saw there in the darkness growing

From sea to shining sea

Demon and man work hand in hand

And I know that they saw me

They saw me see the ancient Plan

They saw me grasp their dream

They saw me raise my righteous fist

They saw me and they screamed

And in the darkness a multitude

Of lights blinked on and blazed

The Army of the Lord awakened

And their righteous fists were raised

I saw the enemy scatter then

Like insects in the light

The Devil's plan undone, unwon

As the blind received their sight.

©by Voo

April 24, 2006

(I do not know why God lifts up

The veil to me sometimes

Some days I beg Him to shut my eyes

And let me, too, go blind

I know there’s others in the world

That see the things I do

But you can’t go back to a life of lies

Once you’ve seen the true)

Arms of the Angel

GOLDEN CLOUDS IN A SILVER SKY

HEAVEN IS SO BEAUTIFUL
I SAW IT IN A VISION
AND IF I HAD THE CHANCE TO GO THERE AGAIN
IT WOULD BE A SIMPLE DECISION.

THE STREETS OF THE CITY ARE PAVED WITH GOLD
IT'S GATES ARE MADE OF PEARL
THE RAIN BOWS THERE AROUND GOD'S THRONE
ARE NOT FOUND IN THIS WORLD.

THE FLOWERS DANCE, THE FLOWERS SING
THE MUSIC FILLS THE AIR
BUT IF YOU LOOK TO SEE THE SOURCE
IT COMES FROM EVERYWHERE.

THE WIND OF HEAVEN IS SWEET AND GENTLE
IT FEELS LIKE A LOVING CARESS
THE PERFUME OF ROSES RIDES ON IT'S WINGS
AND IT BRINGS YOU SUCH PEACE AND SUCH REST.

THE COLORS WITH WHICH GOD HAS PAINTED HIS KINGDOM
MAKE THE COLORS WE KNOW SEEM SO DIM AND SO PALE
WITH THE EYE OF AN ARTIST, HE HAS CREATED A MASTERPIECE
AND IT'S THERE, WAITING, SHINING, JUST BEYOND THE VEIL.

THE FAMILY OF GOD RESIDES IN THAT PLACE
THE ONES WHO HAVE GONE ON BEFORE
THOSE WHO SUFFERED AND DIED BUT NOW IN JOY DO ABIDE
WHERE THEY'LL NEVER KNOW GRIEF ANYMORE.

THE ANGELIC ARMY HAS HEAD QUARTERS THERE
AND THEY GO AND THEY COME AND THEY GO
ON MISSIONS AND WARS, TO COMFORT THE SCARRED
ON ORDERS THAT ONLY THEY KNOW.

IN THE MIDST OF THE CITY IS A RIVER
THAT COMES FROM THE FOUNTAIN OF GOD
THAT BEGINS AT HIS THRONE AND FLOWS TO HIS OWN
LIKE A RIVER OF CRYSTAL CLEAR BLOOD.

ON IT'S BANKS STAND SUCH MARVELOUS TREES
AND THEIR FRUIT GROW IN VARIOUS KINDS
AND THE PEOPLE DO MEET AND COME THERE TO EAT
FOR THE HEALING OF THEIR BODIES AND MINDS.

YOU NEVER SAW SUCH GLORY!
YOU NEVER SAW SUCH LOVE!
YOU NEVER SAW HERE ON THIS EARTH
WHAT'S WAITING FOR US THERE ABOVE!

THIS POEM COULD LAST FOREVER
AND I NEVER COULD RELATE
THE UN-ENDING WONDER OF HEAVEN
THAT EXISTS BEYOND THOSE FAIR GATES.

THERE IS NO HATE AND THERE IS NO HURT
NO MISERY OR PAIN
SUCH HAPPY PEOPLE WITH HAPPY FACES
AND THE JOY COMES DOWN LIKE RAIN.

THE FATHERS OF THE FAITH DWELL THERE
THE ELDERS AND THE TEACHERS
THE KINGS, THE PRIESTS, THE GREAT, THE LEAST
THE PROPHETS AND THE PREACHERS.

EVERYONE HAS A PLACE OF HONOR
(MAYBE NOT IN LIFE) BUT NOW
BUT NO ONE THINKS ABOUT HIMSELF
BUT AT JESUS' FEET, THEY BOW.

AND JESUS IS THE SUNSHINE THERE
HIS LIGHT FILLS EVERYTHING
IN THE PLACE PREPARED BEFORE THE BIRTH OF EARTH
WHERE JESUS IS THE KING.

THEN THE VISION ENDED AS VISIONS DO
IT FADED FROM MY EYES
BUT I CAN STILL SEE IT HERE IN MY HEART
THAT BEAUTIFUL, BEAUTIFUL PARADISE.

THE GLORY OF GOD AND THE SPLENDOR OF HEAVEN
I LONG FOR IT SO THAT IT MAKES MY SOUL CRY
OH, TO STEP ON THAT SHORE FOR JUST ONE MOMENT MORE!
WITH IT'S GOLDEN CLOUDS IN A SILVER SKY.