Sonnet for Truth | Danny Andrews

So many men will leap to scorn a lie,

As if they see it shine before their gaze.

As if the truth is easy to define

Lit up, like Ariadne’s Thread ablaze.

Yet truth to me is always taking flight,

Indeed the twine I seek with mine own eyes

Ascends beyond my feeble squinting sight

Aloft in tapestries of thread and vines.

Woven songbirds nest in these fair aeries

And laugh to scorn the dreams of men’s conceits

Whose vanities make them nothing but blind.

To joyful song and sensuous harmonies.

For love! Not truth is what provokes this line

Aglow with gentle radiance, divine.

Author’s Note:

And it would feel wrong to not have some tribute to Shakespeare as well, which is what inspired this very traditional sonnet. I didn’t stick to all the rules, slightly altering the rhyme scheme because I like the continual consistency of the ‘ine’ rhyme throughout, merging between parts of quatrains, internal rhymes and the final couplet. However, otherwise I’ve tried to remain faithful to the form, particularly with that classic Shakespearean couplet to wrap it up.

Farewell, Harris Westminster.