Thou Shalt Compare Me To A Winter’s Night (Response To Sonnet 18)

• Ruchi Bath-Samarakoon, Grade 12, Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School
• Poetry
• 2022

Finalist in the 'Summertime Fun ONLINE' competition

Thou shalt compare me to a Winter’s night
Where day remains hidden, cold rules supreme,
The clawing, shearing gales thou cannot fight;
Such horror, you would wish it all a dream.
My Winter’s fair never declines, be warned
For warmth hath never dared enter my lair
Chance nor nature curtail me, I am horned
Heed my advice, thou shan’t lay thyself bare.
This Winter’s eternal, it won’t allow
The losing of my charm or strength or rule
Just as Death will not claim me, nor shalt thou,
Detaining me in your verse – fraught with cruel.
I’ll live only in my verse, I decree
For my verse alone speaks the real me.