Of course you have blank verse iambic pentameter and pronouns

Recently discovered this Renaissance musician John Dowland and am listening to people cover his songs... obsessed...

Can She Excuse My Wrongs by Farya Faraji

Flow My Tears by Musica Ficta

Go Crystal Tears by Emma-Lisa Roux

Monologue of the character Helena to Hermia, from William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a fantasy romantic comedy written in the 1590s, one of the earlier plays of his career and one of only a few with no prior literary or historical source for the plot

Expressions of same-sex affection can be found throughout Shakespeare’s sonnets and plays, including The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Coriolanus, and Two Noble Kinsmen. However, the Renaissance did not have the modern concepts of sexual identity and sexual orientation that we have inherited from 19th- and early 20th-century theories of human sexuality and psychology. Hence nobody in this period would have conceived of themselves in terms of modern sexual categories such as heterosexual and homosexual, or gay and straight. The challenge in reading passages such as this is to understand the personal, social, and political significance of same-sex relationships in Renaissance culture without applying anachronistic labels or standards of judgment. In Renaissance England, intimate relationships between women were generally accepted as long as they did not interfere with the women’s conventional sexual and social duties: getting married, having children, maintaining chastity, and behaving in an appropriately feminine manner. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream and As You Like It, adolescent female friendships finally give way to the new bonds between husbands and wives that signal entry into adulthood. However, being married did not prevent adult women from maintaining or establishing affectionate intimacies with other women through relationships of friendship, patronage, or service.

—Annotation in Barnes and Noble Shakespeare’s edition of the play (the first edition I read when I was seventeen), edited by Mario DiGangi

For all that beauty that doth cover thee, Is but the seemly raiment of my heart, Which in thy breast doth live, as thine in me:

“Sonnet 22″, W. Shakespeare

Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse (dir. Agnès Varda)

so, in Paradise Lost book 5, we get the backstory of lucifer's fall from grace. he's lying awake at night thinking about how much he hates jesus, and "his next subordinate / Awak'ning, thus to him in secret spake" (V 671-2).

his "next subordinate" is already established to be beelzebub. the two of them just, sleep together, in heaven. right next to each other. in like the same bed. and here, satan is about to whisper his secret, most sinful thoughts, out loud for the first ever time, to this other male-coded angel. whom he sleeps in the same bed with. ok.

and then we get satan's dialogue:

"Sleepst thou, Companion dear, what sleep can close / Thy eye-lids?" (V 673-4).

satan goes on to say how he wants to overthrow jesus. lot to unpack there. but i just wanna focus on the particular capitalization of "Companion."

capitalization was not standardized in milton's day. it was pretty common to play fast and loose with it like milton is doing here, but that doesn't mean capitalization was random or meaningless. think about how people currently toy with capitalization: you might Capitalize Every Word For Emphasis. or, maybe you'll capitalize Particular words, to show their underlying Importance. to communicate that there's a grander idea hidden behind an understated term.

I think milton is demonstrating Importance here. beelzebub, to lucifer in this moment, is not just a "subordinate", nor is he just a "companion" or friend. rather, beelzebub is a "Companion." a "dear" Companion, even. the type who, you know, sleeps in your bed with you. to whom you whisper your deepest, most sinful secrets, in the middle of the night.

I Just Think It's Neat.

Sonnet 75, Edmund Spenser

So though in love I fervently do burn

In this strange labyrinth how shall I turn?

Lady Mary Wroth, “Pamphilia to Amphilanthus”

I leave off therefore, Since in a net I seek to hold the wind.

"Whoso list to hunt" - Sir Thomas Wyatt

Vita de la Mia Vita - William Hawley

From Six Madrigals, 1986, by American composer William Hawley (b. 1950) To a text by Torquato Tasso (1544-1595) Vita de la mia vita, Tu mi somigli pallidetta oliva O rosa scolorita; Nè di beltà sei priva, Ma in ogni aspetto tu mi sei gradita, O lusinghiera o schiva; E se mi segui o fuggi Soavemente mi consumi e struggi.

Life of my life, You are to me like a pallid olive Or a fading rose; Nor are you deprived of beauty, But in every way you please me, Whether you flatter or shun; And whether you follow me or flee Softly you consume and melt me.

(English translation by William Hawley)

look at me. listen to me. bigots and queerphobes don’t know the distinction between a trans person, a gnc cis gay person, and a cisgender heterosexual crossdresser. all of these people are just queer degenerates to them. that is why their anti-drag bills are written so vaguely as to encompass any possible mundane gender nonconformity - so they can target as many of us as possible in one ruling. and that’s why you need to stop trying to put lines between these groups in regards to ‘who’s more oppressed’ and ‘who has the right to talk about gender’ - gender nonconformity and transgenderism are punished in exactly the same way. cut one of us and the other bleeds. our fight is the same.

“Love is a sacrament that should be taken kneeling”

—Oscar Wilde

A poem by John Skelton

To Mistress Margaret Hussey

Merry Margaret, As midsummer flower, Gentle as a falcon Or hawk of the tower:

With solace and gladness, Much mirth and no madness, All good and no badness; So joyously, So maidenly, So womanly Her demeaning In every thing, Far, far passing That I can indite, Or suffice to write Of Merry Margaret As midsummer flower, Gentle as falcon Or hawk of the tower.

As patient and still And as full of good will As fair Isaphill, Coriander, Sweet pomander, Good Cassander, Steadfast of thought, Well made, well wrought, Far may be sought Ere that ye can find So courteous, so kind As Merry Margaret, This midsummer flower, Gentle as falcon Or hawk of the tower.

John Skelton (c. 1463 – 1529)

a self-esteem guidebook: learning to embrace your imperfect self (1992) - kenneth a. beavers

"exploding you with my mind"

Little Red Riding Wolf - Jason Schneiderman / x / Black Iris - Leah Raeder / Gleinpir - Walton Ford / x / 940 Main Street - Erin Moran / Doctor Who s1e13 / Ghismomda With The Heart Of Guiscardo - Bernardino Mei / Friends Forever - Wayne McKenzie / The Beast - Frank Bidart

"Love plans for tomorrow and loneliness thinks of yesterday. Life is beautiful and living is pain."

-Hunter S. Thompson, The Proud Highway