Sonnet 1

I wrote this poem as an assignment in Mrs. Becker's 12th grade English Class ('99-'00 school year). We had been studying Shakespearean and Spenserian Sonnets. I was frustrated with the strict rules these types of sonnets employ. So for my sonnet I told Mrs. Becker that rather than write one of those types of sonnets (like I was supposed to), I was instead going to write a Stanleyan sonnet. The only strict rules of a Stanleyan sonnet are that it must contain 14 lines and must rhyme (using a rhyme scheme of the sonnetteers choice); iambic pentameter is optional. Anyway, this is the sonnet I wrote and is the very first of the Stanleyan sonnets. Notice I title my sonnets the same way Shakespeare did by numbering them. I'm still working on Sonnet 2...

Sonnet 1

You cannot escape the changes of time,
However hard you might want to try.
Destined to pass from phase to endless phase.
Changing from the time you’re born ‘til you die,
Trying to find a constant in life.
Realizing everything last but a few days.
Never any time to have some fun,
But just a short while and that phase is done.
To another short-lived phase you must go.
But what will happen God only knows.
So laugh while you can and try very hard
Never to complain or argue,
‘Cause you cannot do it over again,
For the days and seasons are short and few.