Category: Ages & Sins

In my final ‘seven deadly sins’ sonnet (also the final sonnet in my ‘Ages & Sins’ collection), I make the case for sloth. As with all my musings in this miniseries, I take the position that a so-called sin is love for something that others deem unacceptable. And who would determine sloth a sin? The… Continue reading Ages & Sins 14: Sloth

In making the case for anger, I needed to understand how it benefits us. Chatting to my wife, she suggested anger protects us from forces that conspire to undermine us. I agree. I get angry when things threaten the essence of my being: challenges that begin to overwhelm me, hurdles I can’t leap, people who… Continue reading Ages & Sins 13: Anger

Gluttony. Excessive eating and drinking. This fifth sonnet of my seven deadly sins collection, marks 5/7 of the way through my project to write a sonnet every week for a year. This sonnet is a celebration of gluttony. I have used synaesthesia (the rhetorical technique of describing one sense in terms of another) to construct a celebration… Continue reading Ages & Sins 12: Gluttony

Exploring love through the lens of the seven deadly sins has compelled me to justify them. Each sin is, after all, overwhelming love for something. The sins are meant to be avoided because they are manifestations of people loving things more than they love god. I’m happy to argue for them; I actively promote loving… Continue reading Ages & Sins 11: Envy

Pure lust, like pure alcohol, is dangerous. But alcohol-free gin is just flavoured water… selling for £30 a bottle! If I want invigorating water, I’ll stick my face in a cascading mountain stream. Is lust an acceptable aspect of love? Each quatrain of this sonnet explores a different side of the argument: lustless love is… Continue reading Ages & Sins 10: Lust

This is the first Love’s Sonnet sonnet to have contemporary (ish) quotes: “Greed is good” and “Loadsa money”. Both lines were intended to criticise the greed culture of the 1980s: both ended up being the celebrated catchphrases of those they intended to lambast. The problem with trying to impose a moral perspective, is that those… Continue reading Ages & Sins 9: Greed

Onto the second half of my ‘Ages and Sins’ collection… the seven deadly sins. According to my research, there is a generally accepted order: pride (or vainglory), greed, or covetousness, lust, envy, gluttony (which also includes drunkenness), wrath or anger, and sloth. So I’ll write a love-related sonnet in response to each, in that order.… Continue reading Ages & Sins 8: Pride

In my final response to Shakespeare’s ‘seven ages’ of man, this sonnet rejects the suggestion that decline in old age is “mere oblivion”. In a society that treasures “expressions of perfection”, it’s not surprising that we “shun” old age and cognitive decline. However, my capping couplet attests, that if Shakespeare’s “second childishness” is akin to… Continue reading Ages & Sins 7: Second childishness

This sonnet explores the significance of love during Shakespeare’s “sixth age”. It is a response to the negative connotations in Jaques’ famous “All the world’s a stage” monologue. The themes of a “shrunk shrank”, “whistles” in the voice and “spectacles on nose” are positively interpreted. The first quatrain uses repeated prolepsis (the use of a… Continue reading Ages & Sins 6: Old Age

This sonnet explores the perspective of the “justice” from Shakespeare’s “seven ages of man”. Although this project is dedicated to love, to judge is the opposite of loving. This sonnet therefore pits judge against lover. To judge or not to judge, that is the question. The lover enjoys “foibles” whereas the judge “Delights in errors”.… Continue reading Ages & Sins 5: Judging