Saturday 5 May 2012

My Love is not the most beautiful


A week in and the honeymoon glow has begun to fade,
So goes the blindness of new love, reality I see again.
Not the angel I saw before, a different judgement I’ve now made.
My Love is not the most beautiful, although she’s far from plain.

She cares more for others than her own self,
But there are others just as kind.
She’s got no great recognised intellectual wealth,
Though her nation’s produced many a great mind.

My Love’s adventurousness gained my adoration,
But, many too have traveled and made the world their home.
Her sense of justice and morality fuel my admiration,
However in this noble field she again is not alone.

But let me stress with the words of a master,
“And yet I think my love as rare”,
As rare, more real, with a depth vaster,
Than “any she belied with false compare.”


I finished this poem on 4 May 2010. It was obviously inspired by Shakespeare's Sonnet 130, "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun", which mocks the conventions of the showy and flowery courtly sonnets in its realistic portrayal of his mistress.

I attempted to do the same writing about my girlfriend at the time.

What do you think of this? Is the role of a poem to exaggerate reality or accurately describe it or both?

Shakespeare's Sonnet 130
Read by Alan Rickman



A short poem after a breakup in 2007:
Nothing left to say
I feel like I should talk to her,
But I’ve nothing left to say.
Two paths that were a joined,
Each went a separate way.

7 comments:

  1. I think it depends on the writer themselves. My poems accuratley describe people, places and things. I have known writers though to exaggerate. Two beautiful heart felt pieces!

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  2. I agree Dana, but I think that it is all too easy when falling in love to see things through rose tinted glasses, and love poetry often reflects this. I always like the fact Shakespeare bucked his own trend in Sonnet 130 and agree it almost makes it more real.

    Where can I find your poetry?

    Thanks for the feedback!

    A series of poems coming up next which detail a recent budding relationship which for a number of reasons couldn't work.

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    1. Your welcome! I'm glad I decided to click that link on twitter.

      My blog is http://dana-mycrazylife.blogspot.com

      My poetry doesn't compare to yours, but I'm still learning a lot about myself.

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  3. i think that it depends on what you are trying to convey, in whether you choose reality or to embellish....i think there are far more endearing qualities than outward beauty...and it is good to me when the honey moon is done as you no longer need to impress and in that you find your reality and if it is something you can live with...smiles.

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  4. Both! My goodness, both! I am thinking a lot about this. Sometimes the true and direct open great insights and worthy imagery. Sometimes the true leads to another story, not necessarily exaggerated, but certainly not autobiographical. I hope no one tries to write a bio from my poems, though one might sketch out a faith and a spirit.

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  5. Both work in their different ways - one is more provocative , and the other revels in its pithiness.

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  6. nice true beauty - classic stlye

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