Chapter Two: O' Lover Boy, Lover Boy, where for art thou Lover Boy?

I was in search of one of my most beloved books, and you J.R.R. Tolkien fans will love to hear this, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, when my eye caught a book that I have had with me since Jr. High. A compilation of William Shakespeare's Love Sonnets 1 - 154. I remember first getting the book because I loved the rich literary texture of the period's time, though I didn't understand a damn word then. Now when I turn the pages and let the words and it's meanings wash over me a sense of wonderment entrances my being. Don't believe me? Ill prove it to you...

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 owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

Sonnet 18, William Shakespeare

You have a shiver running down your spine right now, don't you? I know, I don't blame you.

In this sonnet Shakespeare immortalizes his beloved, whoever that may be. He begins the poem by comparing this unidentified person to a summer's day and then, as the poem goes on, this lucky individual becomes the summer. Shakespeare also goes on to say that even in death the person to whom he dedicated the poem to will never truly die and will always remain beautiful because they will live on forever, the way he remembers them, within his verse.

Now if that isn't a love poem, I don't know what is. [[I just might need a cold shower.]] Look at the words. Read each line carefully and let its meaning filter through your mind and settle in your heart.

I love how people can write about love. Even those who have never experienced love first hand can write about never experiencing love first hand. If there is one thing all people have in common it is that they all want to love and be loved in return because, when you think about it, we are alone in this world. We come into the world alone and we die alone, but it is the loved ones we surround ourselves with that make the loneliness bearable, tolerable, and, for some, easy. Think about those you love and those who love you and spare them a smile. It's the least you can do. After all, love, though the light of the world, is still a heavy burden.

Love,
Ariday

"Like stones, words are laborious and unforgiving, and the fitting of them together, like the fitting of stones, demands great patience and strength of purpose and particular skill." --Edmund Morrison