Sonnet 97: How like a winter hath my absence been
By William Shakespeare
How like a winter hath my absence been
From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!
What old December's bareness everywhere!
And yet this time remov'd was summer's time,
The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,
Bearing the wanton burthen of the prime,
Like widow'd wombs after their lords' decease:
Yet this abundant issue seem'd to me
But hope of orphans and unfather'd fruit;
For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,
And thou away, the very birds are mute;
Or if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer
That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near.
What are your feelings about the winter season? Do you cozy up under a knit blanket with your favorite book next to the fire, coffee cup in hand as the snow falls softly outside? Or do you huff and puff as you pull up the zipper to your coat, braving for the 15-degree walk in the shuddering snowstorm? And if you live in the warmer climates, you are envied by all! What are some of your chilly memories of Pitt during the winter season?
We would love to see your submissions of snowy sonnets that you come up with. It must be about a Pittsburgh winter in a sonnet form. And if you need to brush up on your skills, here is a link that lays out everything you need to know about sonnets; but remember that poetry is a creative process, so please feel free to deviate from the form in any way that adds to the strength of the poem, if needed.
Send your entry to engalums@pitt.edu by April 15, 2023.
About the Judge:
Barbara Edelman, who recently retired from Pitt's faculty after nearly 30 years of teaching for the Writing, Composition, and Literature programs, is a writer who has published two chapbooks and two full-length collections of poetry, most recently All the Hanging Wrenches (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2022). She is an avid outdoor adventurer, as well as an actor and writer of fiction and drama.
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