Shall I Compare Thee to a Winter's Night?

A parody of "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?"

Shall I compare thee to a winter's night?

For thou art more cold, more chilling and dark

Cold and harsh, starv'd of warmth and short of light

The reign of winter will certain leave mark

Sometime so cold the eye of heaven mask'd

And often stolen is his warmth sublime

But even winter's cruel can be task'd

To cool passion with the cold truth in time;

But yours, too cold a heart may fain be shunn'd

A barren land where shoots of love daren't grow

And, alas, poor Cupid's arrow is stunn'd

By the cruel grasp of December's snow

And so from winter's harshness shall we learn

That even ice, in hell, shall surely burn

Author's Note

This was a school project actually. We had to write our own sonnets, preferably by writing a parody of one. I was going to do a funny parody of "Shall I Compare Thee To a Summers Day", but I had writer's block. In the end I just wrote whatever I could before the deadline ^^ I kept with the Shakespearian rhyme scheme.

Reviews

[Carolina Kel]

I love the comparison here. I applaud you for doing this with such style. I know I can't do ryhme schemes that well so when I see people who can, I am so envious!
Well done!

[Liverpoolfan]

haha. Brillant.
Are you sure you just didn't discover a book on Shakespeare's poems that never saw the light of day? That would seem to be a more plausible explanation. School project :| lol

[ShadeOfRupertBrooke]

Very clever, not stealing but subtly adapting the lines of the original. However, I have to say I agree with your teacher on the 'cruel' issue. Granted 'By the cruel grasp of December's snow' has 10 syllables, it is not iambic: the stress should be on the first syllable, not the second as you need it. Cf. Sonnet LX 'Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.' Cruel is a trochaic word, in my opinion, and to work in a sonnet needs to straddle a foot, if that makes sense. Otherwise lovely imagery, especially 'A barren land where shoots of love daren't grow'. Thanks for sharing!

[James Bonner]

This is fantastic. It reads smooth and is beautiful. thank you.

[Tea And A Cheshire Smil..]

aha ^^ 26 our of 27 :) thanks

[Brianna Brie]

I like this sonnet very much. Superb work. Hope you graded well on it.

[alesuriko]

Nice parody on Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day. Good flow and imagery.

[Vinterprinsessa]

This was very nice, it is both pretty and conveys meaning, rather than just being the opposite of the original like some rewritings are.

[RDOriginal]

This is a nice twist on a familiar piece - I quite like the dark emotions it stirs up. I'm sure Shakespeare would approve! Well written and welcome to writers cafe.