Poetic Thursday: Inspired by A Sonnet

Every Thursday, I post a poetry-writing prompt here on the site. This weekly tradition is designed to help you explore new ideas, experiment with different writing techniques, and expand your literary horizons. My aim is to is to provide you with thought-provoking themes, intriguing images, or captivating wordplay that will stimulate your artistic senses. You are free to interpret the prompt in any way you like and express yourself through poetry or creative writing.

Have you ever marveled at the beauty of a summer day and found yourself comparing its splendor to something or someone you hold dear? This poetic practice of drawing parallels between two seemingly unrelated subjects is called a simile. In Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day," the poet masterfully uses similes to compare his beloved to the radiance of summer, ultimately celebrating the enduring power of love.

A sonnet is a 14-line poem that follows a specific rhyme scheme and rhythm, often exploring themes of love, beauty, and mortality. The two primary forms of sonnets are the Italian (Petrarchan) sonnet and the English (Shakespearean) sonnet, each with its unique structure.

Structure of the English (Shakespearean) Sonnet:
Comprises 14 lines divided into three quatrains (4 lines each) and a final couplet (2 lines).
The quatrains typically introduce a theme or problem, which the couplet resolves or reflects upon.
The rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.

In today's blog post, I invite you to create your own poetic masterpiece inspired by this timeless sonnet:

Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

So, the prompt for today is: Using Shakespeare's sonnet as inspiration, write your own poem about summer. This can be an ode to summer, you can compare the elements or love of summer to something else. If you are feeling really confident, you can even write a sonnet.