Dear Soupers....
I'd like to share with you a sonnet that my class worked on under my supervision. I'm not an expert; however, I must say that I really enjoyed this group effort. I shared a blog before on how Poetry Soup can impact our lives positively. It was entitled, "Poetry Soup and Real Life." I mentioned how my students had interacted with Craig Cornish regarding a poem he had written for our class about the bard himself, Shakespeare. I learned a new word then...bardology. 
The class that I teach is a BA course on Shakespeare and His Contemporaries, and it needs a lot of prep work on my part. Though I took the course myself some time ago for the fun of it, I still need to refresh my memory on what I have learned. We've gone through Hamlet, and now we are going through Midsummer Night's Dream. We have gone through several of Shakespeare's sonnets. We have also studied some of the works of John Donne (my favorite), Ben Johnson, Philip Sydney, Christopher Marlow, John Milton, and we will end with Thomas Kyd's Spanish Tragedy. We have also studied in brief the summary of The Tempest, King Lear, The Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliette, and Much Ado About Nothing. Fascinating......
We have studied the sonnet form-- both the Italian sonnets from which the English derived the present form and the Shakespearean sonnets. My students had to write their own sonnets, and since I'm in charge of the Christmas assembly this Monday, I told them they could work on a sonnet for extra credit and present it during the program. One of my students, George, who is also in my Public Speaking class, is going to give a devotional thought.
I hope you enjoy this little write. It is in no way perfect, but I gift it to you during this joyous time of the year. Praise God for his "indescribable gift": Immanuel, God with Us.
If Jesus Had Not Come
If Jesus had not come to earth below
and glory had not shared with wretched man,
this hopeless world would drown in sinful woe
without fulfillment of redemtion's plan.
Our hearts would be devoid of hope and joy.
Our minds would be enslaved and steeped in sin.
If God through Christ His love did not employ,
the evil one would then the battle win.
How could we from our illnesses be healed
without the soothing touch of Jesus' hand,
for how could our salvation then be sealed
without the blood he spilled on conquered land?
But He did come; let's celebrate His birth!
He dwells in hearts to give His peace on earth.
I know it needs some more tweaking, but we had constraints of time. They were a bit worried about my sharing this with you, thinking...."it's too simple", but we are all on a learning curve. I hope you will post encouraging words so that I can share your reactions with them.
God bless you!!!
Eileen
