Bianca and Kate (2 sonnets)

Bianca, a summer’s day do I compare
thou art pure softness and so tender fair
as bilious clouds drift slow across the sky
while summer’s heat falls tepid to the eye
sometimes too soft your shallow nature seems
your life you swallow as in empty dreams
everything to everything sweet to sweet effect
there’s nothing such sponge being can deflect
as mist evaporates with each rising day
so everything in you fades it’s fading way
it is perhaps you act this way by choice
your choice to end in whisper of a voice
so long as man can breathe or eyes can see
your being is a total loss in me

Kate, completely winter’s day the same
thou art deepest black in all disdain
the violent rage of battering storm
the path you take as daily norm
and thy eternal winter does not fade
no passion lost or cheap parade
you shout and scream a constant yell
in all you meet you give pure hell
but beneath the scowling winter rain
there is a hidden quiet, a soft refrain
though never would thou give as choice
that whisper of your other voice
so long as man can breathe or eyes can see
your black being shines the white in me

© Richard Scutter  August 2009

based on two main characters from 'The Taming of the Shrew' by Shakespeare ... written for a U3A session