Shakespeare's Sonnets Re-done

Shakespeare’s Sonnet #1

[Redone by Bruce Hamilton]

All beauty, we believe, should multiply,

since thus its every fragrance might endure

eternally, not have to fade and die

without such progeny as keep life pure.

Yet, you, so much in love with your own eyes,

feed your fine flame with nothing but yourself

and thus bode famine where abundance lies -- 

as if to stick all beauty on a shelf.

You, who right now are truth’s main ornament

and life’s main augurer of one more spring,

within your own bud seem intransigent

in your desire to blast all blossoming.

Pity the world, or else let gluttony

so rule you you unhinge eternity.

Shakespeare’s Sonnet #2

[Redone by Bruce Hamilton]

When forty winters have besieged your brow

and dug deep trenches in your beauty’s field,

your youthful finery, so admired right now,

will be a tattered rag that looks congealed.

Then, if you’re asked where all your beauty lies

(the treasure of your long-lost lusty days),

to say, "It’s all within your deep-sunk eyes,"

will be unuseful shame and useless praise.

Far better praise would it then be that your

eternal beauty had brought forth a child

whose qualities so well might serve to cure

all future ills life couldn’t feel defiled.

Thus, you’d be so new-made when you’d grown old

your blood might never have to grow quite cold.