Sonnet Challenge

Here's a little competition, just for the fun of it (nobody seems to want my prize giveaways, anyway).

I am suggesting that we write a Sonnet over the next few weeks, put it up on our blogs and *give each other a laugh / *move each other to tears. (Delete as appropriate).

As I'm sure you all know, a Sonnet is - strictly speaking - a poem of 14 lines, with a fairly (but not always) rigid rhyming structure, often using couplets, but not necessarily in 'A' 'B' 'C' order. Below is a sonnet by Milton, commenting on his own blindness, with helpful 'A's and 'B's to show where the rhymes fall (as if you couldn't tell just by reading it).

If you are going to do it, please link it with this post, just to let others know where the hell you got the affrontery to write one and put it on display in the first place. That might make them feel better about doing it themselves. I promise I'll show you mine if you show me yours. Meanwhile, here's Milton's effort:

When I consider how my light is spent (a)
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, (b)
And that one talent which is death to hide, (b)
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent (a)
To serve therewith my Maker, and present (a)
My true account, lest he returning chide; (b)
"Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?" (b)
I fondly ask; but Patience to prevent (a)
That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need (c)
Either man's work or his own gifts; who best (d)
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state (e)
Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed (c)
And post o'er land and ocean without rest; (d)
They also serve who only stand and wait." (e)