Sonnet 116 2.0

This piece was submitted by a member of the LGBTQ+ community at American University as part of the Rival American’s Pride Week. Their views do not necessarily represent that of The Rival American or its staff. If you’d like to submit your own work, please do so with our submission drive which will be open until Thursday, April 25th.

By Ilia Hionidou

Let us not, to the marriage of two hearts,
Imply impediments. Love is just Love,
Which alters not for bodies set apart,
Or for disciples of a God above.
For no, it claims an ever-lasting right,
From Lorca under Andalusian skies,
To Woolf's discretion under Sapphic plight,
Still lives repeat subjugation’s reprise.
Love’s not Law’s fool, though yellowed parchment paper reads,
Amends inscribed by liberty’s hand,
Ireland’s thirty-fourth, America’s fourteenth,
To rest equal on each finger, the wedding band.
This gain though great, we still corrupt pertain
We are not free while those unfree remain.

Ilia is an exchange student from the University of Glasgow, undertaking her Junior Year at AU. As a Literature Major, she spends way too much time reading; however, when she does have free time, she works on documentation projects that aim to elevate LGBTQ+ voices.