A birthday sonnet for
Catherine, my daughter
In her rendition of Prospero’s Speech,
Loreena McKennitt edits Shakespeare.
The Bard’s protagonist, his magic reach
ended, judges himself a prisoner
of the audience, calls his soul “confined.”
The singer alters the word to “released,”
casting her listener, perhaps, a kind
jailer compared to ancestors who’d feast
on Will’s charmed words in Elizabethan
days. A worthy action for an artist
wishing to end her CD with élan
vital, much as the Creator once kissed
Adam with breath. Much as a father holds
his daughter close, protecting her from cold.
Roger Armbrust
August 21, 2007
