Shakespearean Sonnets Quotes

“The Musket's Progeny by Stewart Stafford

The musket's progeny, gunpowder's rise,
Heirloom ingot cast in festering dirt,
No scaldy-faced defecator's lies,
Can tarnish gold's immutable worth.

Besmirched, perpetual gleam to my eyes,
Ne'er base, but plundered from thy berth,
Another's private treasure, I cannot despise,
Until thy loan fadeth i' th' afterbirth.

With cloistered secrets to impart,
Our correspondence doth expand,
Let it encompass thy tiny heart,
For when it groweth to understand.

When from distant quays, emotion sails,
My words guide thee in storms and gales.

© Stewart Stafford, 2024. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“The Physician's Pageant by Stewart Stafford

Can aught endure the masquerade
Of this world's blindfolded night?
Melancholy's strike doth calm the raving,
As babes roused from stillbirth in fledgling light.
We know that the womb doth wander,
Around the body, causing ills without care,
A pessary's charm doth anchor it in place again,
As bait doth lure the quarry to the snare.
Burn sulfur, rosemary, lavender and juniper,
Or foul dung smoke to cleanse tainted rural air.
Light aromatic torches in the playhouse and market,
Let vile odours and miasmas in these spaces beware.
Though ragged contagion and death still doth assail,
God willing, some blessed souls still shalt prevail.

© 2024, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved. ”
― Stewart Stafford