Bianca and Kate

Bianca and Kate considering the two ladies from ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ with apologies to Shakespeare 

Bianca

a summer’s day do I compare

thou art pure softness and so tender fair 

as billowing 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 its 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 blackness shines reality in me 

Footnote The ‘Taming of the Shrew’ is a delightful play on the duality of the female character. This poem was written as a performance piece for a University of the Third Age Shakespeare appreciation course