Wasteful life
For shame! deny that thou bear'st love to any,
Just think how wasteful is your life deprived of love.
If only you could know life is for love and caring,
I would forgive the slight for precious memories of ours.
Beware of the grievous outcome you’ll have to bear:
No love, no fruit of love in your life’s final days,
No hopes to be remembered how you fared,
Just books and poetry you will be mentioned by.
Think of the pleasures you deny yourself
This waste will show before you even passed away.
W.Shakespeare. Sonnet # 10
For shame! deny that thou bear'st love to any,
Who for thyself art so unprovident.
Grant, if thou wilt, thou art beloved of many,
But that thou none lovest is most evident;
For thou art so possess'd with murderous hate
That 'gainst thyself thou stick'st not to conspire.
Seeking that beauteous roof to ruinate
Which to repair should be thy chief desire.
O, change thy thought, that I may change my mind!
Shall hate be fairer lodged than gentle love?
Be, as thy presence is, gracious and kind,
Or to thyself at least kind-hearted prove:
Make thee another self, for love of me,
That beauty still may live in thine or thee.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Posted: Mar 2011
About this poem:
This is my petit contribution to the competition, inspired by Shakespeare’s Sonnet # 10, the first line of which I am quoting in this poem. It is about heart being wasted, love shared with no one and deprivation brought to bear upon oneself, denying oneself the only pleasure in life and therefore all the grace possessed by one having been bestowed on him in vain. The gist of the poem is that sharing love with someone is in truth being benevolent, gracious and kind-hearted to oneself in the first place. No one could deny it except for a self-loving man, possessed “with murderous hate” for his own self.
Comments (10)
Well done.
0rpheus (Philip)
That is no 'petit' contribution, that is simply quite superb, you took the opening line of that sonnet and produced a brilliant poem with great rhythm.
Best wishes
Bill
If only you could know life is for love and caring, I would forgive the slight for precious memories of ours is such a loving statement. Whether to love or to be loved (and, hopefully, both), life without loving would be most unbearable.