Erik is Dead:
Christine's Lament
I stagger back, dismayed to read the news
L'Epoch proclaims it, there in black and white
The letters swim; my heart falls to my shoes
To think he died in that eternal night.
He sent Raoul and me away from him;
He gave us freedom when I gave my kiss.
I'd rather have been severed limb from limb,
Than have him die alone in that abyss!
My Erik! He, the most sublime of men,
Whose face kept him from ever being loved
Is with the angels now. He sings again,
His voice more perfect than all those above.
... ...My love, you sacrificed your life for me:
... ...The sign of perfect love. Too late…I see.
A/N: OK, so I got a wild hair and decided to write another sonnet. As I've already explained in my previous pair of "Sonnets for the Phantom," the rhyme scheme is quite rigid, with the first and third lines rhyming, and the second and fourth lines rhyming, and so on. A sonnet is 14 lines long, with the final couplet rhyming with itself.
The meter is also quite strict, with an unstressed syllable followed immediately by a stressed one: duh-DAH.
And there are five stresses per line. ("Stressed" just means emphasized in this case.)
OK, now, I've taken off my English teacher hat. So tell me what you think of the poem?