A Sonnet: Sunless Shade


The Dinner, Marcel Rieder, ca. 1900.

Hello friends,

I hope you have been well. Please forgive my relative silence — I’ve been adjusting to a new school system so I haven’t had the time or inspiration to write of late. However, I did want to share with you some exciting news. I received an award in the Youth category of the Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest for a sonnet I wrote. I have included the poem below for you to read. Let me know your thoughts or questions in the comments below. I love to hear from you.


Sunless Shade

How quickly doth the night in drapes draw forth
All haunting reveries of sunless shade.  
The mind, a maiden captive from the north, 
Lets loose a scarlet rope, amid the raid.

The curtains usher in the sound of trees
Whose slender wrists are seised by arms of gale. 
Doth he not see this brawl, nor hear the breeze  
In lonesome sleep beneath the ocean’s veil? 

From depths of inky loch the moon surveys,  
Her waxen face, a kiln of cosmic art, 
Her ashen robes descend on crystal waves,
A wily nymph whose lips will not impart.

When night in pall enfolds the somber shore,
Is light or shade what he perceives no more? 


2 responses to “A Sonnet: Sunless Shade”

  1. My thought was; is the cup of life half full or half empty? That’s just what struck me-no reason I can explain. A beautiful poem with many references to mysterious and wondrous things. I was able to hear and enjoy the sonnet you recited on the Zoom meeting last Sunday.

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