Senior News 

YEAR 11 SONNET COMPETITION

Inspired by Valentine’s Day and our study of poetry in Literature, the Year 11 class participated in a sonnet competition. One of the most difficult forms of poetry, the students all produced incredible work expressing their understandings of love. Below are the eight poems shortlisted and the amazing work by Juliet O, winning the competition with her clever and witty take on the sonnet tradition. Well done to all participants! 

WINNER

A Rhyme for Love 

by Juliet O

Tell me a word that rhymes with beautiful

Or alluring, pulchritudinous, stunning.

There are no words that rhyme with beautiful

To write a sonnet, words must be cunning.

So instead I will say that she’s pretty

Less powerful, but with more words that rhyme.

Her smile could light up an entire city.

(See, I’m using clichés to fill the time)

Now, would you prefer me to say that she’s nice?

Reduce her to another boring word?

The love I express must be more precise,

Crystal clear and not something that is blurred.

You want a sonnet that says what I feel,

But love doesn’t fit into a rhyme scheme.

Other shortlisted...

Unspoken Words

By Ali S

Two souls that linger, locked in silent gaze,

Their hearts both racing, yet their lips stay closed.

A fleeting chance lost in the quiet haze,

A love untold, as time and fear imposed.

They walk the halls where echoes softly call,

Their shadows close, yet worlds still lie between.

A brush of hands, a glance. that’s all,

Yet neither dares to say what could have been.

The words they crave sit heavy in the air,

But pride and doubt have built a fragile wall.

If just one step, one whisper, one small dare,

Perhaps love’s voice would rise above it all.

But days drift by, the moment slips away,

And silence turns to sorrow’s slow decay.

For Venus

By anonymous 

Forsaken to love and thunderstorms blaze.

Do I love too much? Please! Saturn save me.

Am I slaughtered by it? Will it last? Always?

It engulfs all my soul; I let it be.

My silver lined heart punctured long ago.

Diving six feet under for more, addict.

Torture my nail beds until they won’t grow.

Self-induced isolation I’ll inflict.

I’ve been sick for seventeen years, It’s tombed

beneath the very flesh I was born to.

Marred by nature, destined to plunge; born doomed.

Oscillated existence, sidelined view.

Maybe this feeling will never leave.

Please let me leave, I’ll be there for me.

Untitled 

By Iris Z

"I think to myself: What wouldn’t I give

For you to love me so feverishly?

Every breath I take, each hour that I live,

You roam the cottage of my mind freely.

Without your affections I fall apart,

Adrift in sorrow’s tide, too lost to cope.

Your devoured my odd pomegranate heart,

Plump fruit filled with myriad seeds of hope.

But what I had mistaken for your love,

Was a reflection of my affections,

A hollow dream whispered from the above,

A mirage leading to misdirection.

As evanescent as a phantom sigh,

As fleeting as the everchanging sky."

Sonnet

By Yasmin S

Your eyes are cold and frigid on mine, pinned

You haunt my mind, presence in every place

Like a tight embrace, your breath on my face

Its crisp chill like a bitter, glacial wind

Your missing presence is an eerie ghost, 

Haunting, over in my mind, an anthem

Your affection addictive, a phantom

It’s a ghastly grip, disease diagnosed

Yet you hold my hand, your claws tear my skin

My blood falls, staining the white that I wear

Your toxic heart, it beats faster than mine

Filling with poison, injecting within

I struggle to breathe, fighting for cool air

I am beaten, broken, but I am fine

A Love Letter

By Amelia T

Oh, how your eyes glisten with admiration,

How the trace of your fingertips linger,

I wonder if she knows when you feel her,

She’s nothing but a surrendered temptation.

Oh, how you used to be my safest haven,

Though you must know that it makes me sicker

That as I watch the last of our flame flicker,

I still crave you like you’ll cure my starvation.

But oh, I mustn’t let it choke me,

The stench of your disloyal person,

As your dismembered body lays gracefully

In its scarlet pool of burden.

Guilty as sin, Satan should thank me

For gifting him this exterminated vermin.

Untitled

By Anonymous

Oh! her curls, moon shimmering, rings bounding,

pirouette, fluorescent waves, we first met;

crayon scribbles, click! a shutter! I dream

of spirals~ routine, off the rink she gets;

another round! ice swirls, lives entwine,

euphoria enthrals; I dig in; her

mouth gapes open; mind flies; nails claw behind;

relishing her warmth we blend together~

The lights flick on. A dingy yellow glare.

The ticking clock, my life’s metronome,

counts the time. I left them a card there.

Tick, tick, tick. Pins, paper, litter my home.

Red coils join others. Strands in alignment.

A flash of blue and red. It is silent

Untitled

By Archie H

Upon the fields where golden stalks arise,

The ripened grains sway gently in the breeze

Beneath the sun, they reach towards the skies,

A gift of heart, a harvest mean to please.

With careful hands, we reap what nature sows,

Then cleanse the husk to find the pearly white.

From steaming pots, a fragrant comfort flow,

A simple grain that brings the heart delight.

Yet in its worth lies struggle, sweat, and toil,

For farmers bend through storms and scorching heat.

Their labour feeds the world from earthen soil,

One to be paired with vegetables, eggs, and meat.

So let us not take lightly what we taste.

For every grain is born from toil not waste.