How true this sonnet is… I am sure everyone who has loved someone has had sleepless nights, kept awake by thoughts of their beloved. I have been fortunate to marry my beloved, but now I’m kept awake by thoughts of my characters’ love for each other, requited and unrequited. In Radwinter, the story I am writing now, the main character doesn’t realise he is falling in love… I hope the reader will see what is happening to him so there is the continual anticipation of something exciting, and that when it does arrive it will be satisfying to my character and the reader!
Sonnet XXVII
Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;
But then begins a journey in my head
To work my mind, when body’s work’s expired:
For then my thoughts–from far where I abide–
Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,
And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,
Looking on darkness which the blind do see:
Save that my soul’s imaginary sight
Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,
Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night,
Makes black night beauteous, and her old face new.
Lo! thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind,
For thee, and for myself, no quiet find.
William Shakespeare
Lois Elsden 