#482: Shakespeare tried to immortalize his love . . .

Shakespeare tried to immortalize his love
in sonnets, in perfect iambic lines
and in masterful metaphor, enjambed rhymes.
What lives on is the poem, not the person.
But it’s better than nothing, I suppose,
and everyone who dies should have a poem
composed in their memory, 14 lines,
a poem that preserves something of a soul,
that argues that the world and this life
has been made deeper, richer, by theirs.
And there’s something about that commitment,
the concentrated effort it takes one
to embody as best one can in short–
for memory, posterity, comfort.

Published by michaeljarmer

I'm a retired public high school English teacher, fiction writer, poet, and musician in Portland, Oregon

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