Romeo and Juliet Sonnets

Juliet at 39 (if the plan had worked)

When I spoke of sweet smelling roses, I
wasn't thinking of the thorns. Nor did
I think that roses could so swiftly die,
or that that sweetness could turn so rancid.
When I held you close that first time, hearing
dawn's herald, the lark, I wished it gone: in
my mind it was. Now I lie in bed fearing
it will not come, and you'll wake up again.
And when I lay within that tomb, for love
of you seemingly dead, I dreamt of our life
together. Now all my dreams are full of
tombs, and my hands reach again for a knife.
Oh churl! Your lips once so warm now seem so cold,
and the life in them, like me, has grown old.

Romeo's lament (if the plan had worked)

A feasting presence full of light? Ha! Now
all you do is feast. Your dancing shoes have
soles of lead; that lead, alas, I must allow
is you. I remember well how you gave
me your hand that first night in prayer:
that was a game. Now your hand is penance.
It holds me back. It crushes all the gayer
aspects of my soul and kills all romance.
And my good name, Oh, what you did to that!
For love of you - if I ever did - I
new named now must live for killing a cat
and a noble youth. I wish I could die.
The sweeter rest, I've learned, would now be mine
had I married not you, but Rosaline.

(Written years ago after teaching the play a couple of times)

Pax et bonum