Sonnets

As part of the gamification of Macbeth, a narrative was created to engage the students, motivating them to move through the "levels" of the course. This narrative opens with the student as "player" discovers their sister has died in a production of Macbeth. The accident is blamed on the curse of Macbeth, but records indicate something more murderous at play. The student was asked to write a eulogy for their sister, in the form of a sonnet, using the characteristics of Lady Macbeth to describe their sister. Here are some of the best examples.

Cordelia's Eulogy

Dear my loveliest girl through mind and soul,
Tragedy, like beauty, but ripped at ends.
Lovely, yet venom coursed, heart to a hole,
Darkly, ending as thorns around your bends.
So kind, so sweet, precious, like drenched in drought, 
What demons possessed you or what time gave.
What lead to your demise, and fnal shout,
I dread your fnal thoughts and now your grave.
Too soon you left into the night and dark,
But your brilliance left your glowing mind.
After your sail into the silent ark,
Now eyes of crowds and mine now left un-blind. 
Crash and tragedy undead and quiet,
Let you rest and be at peace and silent.
-S.B.

Untitled

Such a destruction to come to the world 
The world ever ravaged with the loss
But never the same to those of the wyrd
Two of the best ilk, murdered with no cross
Father and mother disappear, no trace
The light of the young dimmed from the death 
Both so important, now gone from all space 
for all to see, both bound down to the depths
However the children are held by one’s light touch
One holds the light of both, together strong
Despite the gloom, neither lean upon any crutch
One sisters love holds strength forever long
The path of one, brings doom to the other
The lost one down his lonesome path again
-A.V.

Eulogy for Cordelia

Whose insolence rang never like the last
The royalty she took to those to grieve
Without the iridescence of a past
From which proceeds desire to misconceive
She had the will, deterministic drive
Cennae or else some other bold defeat
Enraptured still to want to slay alive
Like Scots would tend to do the ire retreat
The toil with which she tended now is ten
A supra-natural claim that fate dismays
The cession then was rendered now is rent
And ever shining sun to us portrays:
The vapors still do course on through our veins
but she will coalesce without our pains
-A.H.

Cordelia’s Sonnet

Struck down by lightning were our hopes and dreams

In roll thunder clouds of “supportive” greed

Her stare could kill but not when my tears streamed

Little I knew how death could plant a seed

Obsession can be its own tragedy

The Scottish curse traps an innocent mind

How precious is the young mortality

The curse strengthens as mystery unwinds

She is now bending to another’s will

The inner workings of an evil spell

Would my sister's blood be the next to spill?

Morbid curiosity never quelled

I hold her dead memories on my chest

O,Cordelia, finally at rest

-A.W.

Cordelia’s Eulogy

My dearest sister here you lie alone

You let yourself be driven mad and see

Cordelia now you’ve left me own my own

To be in pain with no one here with me

I cannot seem to find the words for you

You saw the curse and did not think to stop

And now there’s nothing anyone can do

You fell just as the lights did all once drop

You should have left the curse to lie asleep

You had no other curse than was your mind

And now all I can seem to do is weep

For you have left me here and far behind

My dearest sister here you lie to sleep

I pray your pendant I shall ever keep

-E.W.

Cordelia’s Eulogy

Great is a word used far too much for me
It is held up as unachievable
And great are only great if brave they be
There are those who may not have this label
Cordelia was not one widely known
Nor was her sweet name carved in marbled stone 
Still it was she who saved me, she alone
And I who could not save her from death’s throne
The duty of sister to a sister
Is immensely heavy to the elder
While the younger gains from elder’s blisters
‘Til angry words split up loving shelters
And no apology will bring to life
The hand once warm with love now turned pale white
-R.L.