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| Edvard Munch - The Apple Tree (1921) |
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A marriage Proposal
If only no impediments arose
If only no impediments arose
to block the smooth marriage of two true minds!
But love not based in faith may well compose
itself of nothing else but apple rinds.
We need the core, the very meat of love
to nurture and to hold True North when wind
blows hard to shake our harvest from above.
Too often surface storms love’s vow rescind.
And so, let us not use mere words to prove
our affection, but share in time our seeds
and growth and fruit and leaves that move
us beyond our own wants to what love needs.
Let’s know each other’s daydreams and nightmares.
Let’s love in faith, in practice and in prayers.Shakespeare's original:
SONNET 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no; it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
"We need the core, the very meat of love." So true, and sometimes it takes a bit of time to get to that core. If one knows only the rind, so much depth is missing. And, yes, faith, practice, and prayers help keep the relationship strong!
ReplyDeleteThe first four lines are just brilliant ...ring true..I could not agree more.Unfortunately we are indoctrinated with liberal cultural marxist views that maintain the opposite viewpoint .There are some of us who have lived to regret the apple rind relationships. Marriage not based in faith only works on a superficial plane ,which is fine if you are a surface dweller.Your best poem to date...thought provoking,controversial,expressed succinctly and beautifully... Excellent.
ReplyDeleteOh you did what I was thinking to do, to take Shakespeare's sonnet and write one of my own. And you have done it so brilliantly. I especially love "and so let us share......that move us beyond our own wants to what love needs". Loved this!
ReplyDelete"We need the core, the very meat of love"...when forgotten the meaning is lost....the couplet reveals the essence...
ReplyDeleteWe need the core, the very meat of love
ReplyDeleteto nurture and to hold true north when wind
blows hard to shake our harvest from above.
Such a lot of truth and beauty in these lines. A wonderful composition and that too so much lovelier than the original! Beautifully executed :D
Lots of love,
Sanaa
Let’s know each other’s daydreams and nightmares... love that!
ReplyDeleteI luv the summary of your last line. It encourages a marriage of heart and mind
ReplyDeleteThanks for a lovely Wednesday prompt
much love...
Ha. This is great:
ReplyDelete"But love not based in faith may well compose
itself of nothing else but apple rinds."
Susan I think you did get to the core. I also think of the "true love": the one that endures, considers the other, is not jealous, is kind and long suffering.
ReplyDeleteA tall order to be sure.
The apple core..the meeting of souls is the only place for union..a strong foundation can whether the storms and those rinds can do their job and fertilise the soil to keep it strong and sure...a beautiful sonnet - your poetry is better and better all the time!
ReplyDeleteSusan,
ReplyDeleteYou have captured the essence of love and marriage through the fruit, seeds and leaves that move...once the core of hearts are known to each other..All takes time and commitment...
Eileen
Very true... your lines express the very essence of marriage..nurturing each others dreams and staying together in turbulant times.
ReplyDelete"We need the core, the very meat of love" --This says it all! The reality is that you need to have faith in love and relationship...
ReplyDeleteFine lines, beautiful poem!
I liked them both! Thanks for your poems!
ReplyDeleteQuite Beautiul, love and companionship can't survive if a couple are unwilling to know each other.
ReplyDeleteWhat skill it takes to re-compose a Shakespearian sonnet!
ReplyDeleteReally lovely.
ReplyDeleteOoh, you're brave! And you have done a wonderful job; congratulations!
ReplyDeleteWonderful re-write of this sonnet, Susan. Shakespeare brought up to date, yet the core is the same. Times may change, people don't change, even over the centuries...
ReplyDelete