Shadow followed. leading us to shadows
deeper, dancing painting dreamscapes deeper
closer to our death, this draught a purple close
reaper’s rattling breath; this gloom a reaper’s.
Fair, was sun on those days before we fared
defeat to darkness, when farewells, defeat,
were whispered into voids of parting, where
meat decaying, parts with bone, again we meet
soulless shadows threadbare dressed, on soles
too thin for concrete in our death dance – two
roles inside the reaper’s play, in our roles
you are my shadow, grave bound soon; you
turn towards the dawn as the shadows turn,
burn the twilight, life returns, again we burn.
Salvador Dali
Today we are truly challenged at dVerse by Laura to write a shadow sonnet where each line both begins and ends with the same word (or a homophone). To do this in pentameter is an extra challenge, and I tried to follow it as closely as I could, though it’s hard to get exactly to ten syllables if you start with a strong syllable as well as keeping up a rhymescheme.
February 10, 2022
Björn Rudbergs writings 
Awesome accomplishment. I could never.
Bravo you chose some difficult repeat words and yet managed to make them sound unobstructive to the reading – especially liked:
“reaper’s rattling breath; this gloom a reaper’s.”
Shadow by form, shadow by sense! Nicely done, Bjorn, and some brave choices of shadow words. I can only echo Laura.
Majestic. I could never accomplish a shadow sonnet even if my life depended on it.
You’ve done it so well. The reaper shadow metaphor, the repeating beginnings and ends, BRAVO
And an intimidatingly good tale told
much love
I absolutely love the ending of the second stanza and your creative changes of the words for the repetitions.
Very difficult, and wonderfully challenging. I chose not to use the ten syllable iambic pentameter but plan on redoing it soon to fit all of the suggested parameters!
A tour de force…..in a very tough challenge…really meaty stuff there Bjorn……
Super Bjorn, so well written!
Bjorn, I admire you for fulfilling the elements of the challenge. There is no way I could have maintained iambic pentameter (I tried!)
Feeling the shadows in this one, love your style! 👏👏
You did very well on your sonnet!
soulless shadows threadbare dressed, on soles
too thin for concrete in our death dance
A difficult challenge. I like your use of homonyms.
Just reading the description of the challenge makes me have to think hard. You wrangled it nicely though, I especially enjoyed the way you ended the poem, tying all the imagery and the notion together.
I am in awe, Björn! I love your brave word choices.
Ah my word! This sonnet has left me awestruck. I just loved your brilliant word choices here! 🙂
A most excellent attempt for a very difficult challenge. You’ve risen to the occasion and offered a rich, evocative and very thought-provoking sonnet for us to savour, bite and just muse on – the richness of the imagery and metaphors. Well done indeed.
I like especially the third stanza–I can see that dance. (K)
Masterful. I love the ambiguity of “soles too thin”
A stunning shadow sonnet, Bjorn. It had me in mind of some fated bloody duel. Love the wordplay, the enjambment, the short sentences.
Wow, this is amazing. I love your use of homophones (I didn’t know that was allowed). I went back and added my last two lines.