Gotham Sonnets
Star-Crossed Love was such a fun challenge--to combine Batman and Shakespeare's plays--that it inspired another fun challenge--to combing Batman and Shakespeare's sonnets. The goal was to pick a Batman character and then write a sonnet that easily represents them without mentioning them by name. So far I've managed to only do three, but there's plenty of other characters I hope to get to.
#1
A woman once loved well, but not too wise,
A man so full of merriment and guile
That there was no defense she could devise
To save her soul from his enormous smile.
Inside his cage he made a funny face,
That tickled her and warmed her like the sun.
She set him free and gladly fell from grace,
Her life of love and laughter now begun.
New clothes, new name, new face to please this man,
She did all she could do to make him grin,
For when his laughter stopped, the pain began,
That bruised her face and killed her from within.
Though beaten savagely when she misspoke,
She could not bear to leave and miss the joke.
#2
Two eyes look down to prosecute my fate,
Two outcomes, opposite as night and day,
Two possibilities with equal weight,
And purest chance to have the final say.
The right eye, handsome, gentle, soft and kind,
Still has a spark of righteousness within,
A relic of the noble knight maligned,
Now captive to the wrath of his dark twin.
And oh, what wrath that left eye has in store,
As ugly as its loathsome, twisted scars.
On all it sees, it seeks to wage its war,
And will not stop till all around it chars.
Alas, those eyes have all my hope purloined,
And made my life the tossing of a coin.
#3
I lay this inquiry upon my foe,
A challenge, take care not to misconstrue,
To match your wits against all that I know,
And name me with what’s hidden in this clue.
In envious suit I punctuate my mark,
Through genius schemes of larceny and fun,
Confusing noble soldiers in the dark,
With polysemous truths of what I’ve done.
To find me, hear all that I have to say,
Consider all the meanings they belie,
But cautiously, for should you go astray,
You’ll find that fate quite fatal. Who am I?
Go on then, guess, if you should dare to dream,
But know my intellect shall reign supreme!