Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest
Now is the time that face should form another;
Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest,
Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother.
For where is she so fair whose uneared womb
Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?
Or who is he so fond will be the tomb
Of his self-love, to stop posterity?
Thou art thy mother's glass and she in thee
Calls back the lovely April of her prime;
So thou through windows of thine age shalt see,
Despite of wrinkles, this thy golden time.
But if thou live, remembered not to be,
Die single and thine image dies with thee.
Modern Sonnet: Inextricably Caught
(by firelioness)
Morning comes, yet no sweet melody greets the ear
The cheerful lark sings in a world of the distant past
Instead, the whoosh of cars and an occasional honking blast
form the only cacophony one can hear
Morning comes, yet no dazzling sunrise lights the dull pier
Instead, the waves of smoky smog work fast
Smothering warm rays and shrouding the city in a dark cast
Filling the water with poison, stealing its clarity and sheer
Nature stands no chance against its industrial foe
Its oceans may flood and its winds may blow
But such calamities will matter not
when toxic wastes make the sea inhospitable
and deleterious fumes render the air irrespirable
For if nature loses, mankind will be the one inextricably caught
Morning comes, yet no sweet melody greets the ear
The cheerful lark sings in a world of the distant past
Instead, the whoosh of cars and an occasional honking blast
form the only cacophony one can hear
Morning comes, yet no dazzling sunrise lights the dull pier
Instead, the waves of smoky smog work fast
Smothering warm rays and shrouding the city in a dark cast
Filling the water with poison, stealing its clarity and sheer
Nature stands no chance against its industrial foe
Its oceans may flood and its winds may blow
But such calamities will matter not
when toxic wastes make the sea inhospitable
and deleterious fumes render the air irrespirable
For if nature loses, mankind will be the one inextricably caught
The cheerful lark sings in a world of the distant past
Instead, the whoosh of cars and an occasional honking blast
form the only cacophony one can hear
Morning comes, yet no dazzling sunrise lights the dull pier
Instead, the waves of smoky smog work fast
Smothering warm rays and shrouding the city in a dark cast
Filling the water with poison, stealing its clarity and sheer
Nature stands no chance against its industrial foe
Its oceans may flood and its winds may blow
But such calamities will matter not
when toxic wastes make the sea inhospitable
and deleterious fumes render the air irrespirable
For if nature loses, mankind will be the one inextricably caught
