The Shape of a Shadow

Even the smallest light glimmers in the dark

Love is smothered by indifference, not hate

Only by nothingness do the fires of love abate

And night flees the dawn, with the song of a lark

Even as floodwaters lift a lonely ark

So hope and joy rise out of hurt and grief

Companions rise, and friends give relief

Where bitter hatred hoped to leave it's mark.

Shadows gather and shadows linger

Shrouding imagination, darkening love

Stars blaze brightest before they die

A ring sparkles brightly upon a finger

Chasing away fear with knowing what they have

No love is the same forever, but it is no lie.

A 14-line poem with a variable rhyme scheme originating in Italy and brought to England by Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, earl of Surrey in the 16th century. Literally a “little song,” the sonnet traditionally reflects upon a single sentiment, with a clarification or “turn” of thought in its concluding lines. There are many different types of sonnets.

The Petrarchan sonnet, perfected by the Italian poet Petrarch, divides the 14 lines into two sections: an eight-line stanza (octave) rhyming ABBAABBA, and a six-line stanza (sestet) rhyming CDCDCD or CDECDE. John Milton’s “When I Consider How my Light Is Spent” and Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “How Do I Love Thee” employ this form.