For Lovely Things Found by Accident

I stumbled across this sonnet by accident, while doing some research on the form. I think some of the most interesting and lovely things are found by accident.

- Sonnet Macabre -

I love you for the grief that lurks within

Your languid spirit, and because you wear

Corruption with a vague and childish air,

And with your beauty know the depths of sin;

Because shame cuts you and holds you like a gin,

And virtue dies in you slain by despair,

Since evil has you tangled in its snare

And triumphs on the soul good cannot win.
I love you since you know remorse and tears,

And in your troubled loveliness appears

The spot of ancient crimes that writhe and hiss
I love you for your hands that calm and bless,

The perfume of your sad and slow caress,

The avid poison of your subtle kiss.

by Theodore Wratislaw, from "Caprices" (1893)

I love this sonnet. I find it haunting and beautiful. It reminds me of women like Dorothy Parker & Anais Nin. I love the fact that it goes against the convention of traditional Petrachan Sonnets and praises someone for all their faults and experience, rather than their physical perfections, which is similar to Shakespeare's 'My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun'. I like the honesty of recognising desire as something potentially destructive. I'm listening to a really strange piece of music by Puerto Muerto, called Ghostee. It's a nice accompaniment to this sonnet, I think^^.