Pop Sonnets: Shakespearean Spins on Your Favourite Songs. Erik Didriksen

      I shall not care if ev’ry single week

      begins with Monday wrapp’d in dismal blue

      with Tuesday trailing after, looking bleak

      in ashen gray, completely without hue.

      On Wednesday morns, the gloomy break of dawn

      may hoist the forlorn flag and follow suit.

      Though Thursday wilt for too long linger on,

      I’ll lie in wait for what’s in hot pursuit.

      How Saturday turns briskly into night!

      The Sabbath time will far too quickly race

      through ev’ry moment bringing me delight

      within my dear beloved’s fond embrace.

      As th’ weekend starts, I thank the Lord above:

      ’tis Friday now, and truly I’m in love.

       The Cure, ‘Friday I’m in Love’

      Throughout my body, I feel sudden chills

      but they spring not from newly fallen snow;

      instead, they stem from each romantic thrill

      that being in thy presence doth bestow.

      I must the call for self-improvement heed;

      to be a better man I’ll swiftly learn,

      for I must be the one to meet thy needs –

      the lord for whom my lady’s soul doth yearn.

      And so, if I thy tender heart have warm’d

      and made myself the one thou hast ador’d,

      I’ll prove I have my character transform’d

      and evermore thy faith in me reward.

      There are no further words I’ll e’er require:

      my dear, thou art the one I do desire.

       John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, ‘You’re the One That I Want’

      I had considered love a mythic force,

      a fable told to children ere they slept –

      and if ’twas real, it show’d me no remorse

      while it withheld the wistful dreams I kept.

      I thought of romance like a chest of gold,

      assuming what I gave would e’er be lost;

      thus I commanded that my heart grow cold

      so I might ne’er incur its heavy cost.

      But when at last I saw her visage fair,

      my chill’d convictions thaw’d to my relief;

      I’m now the heart’s disciple, deep in pray’r

      and thoroughly devout in my belief.

      No force on earth could ever be applied

      to make me, love’s apostle, leave her side.

       The Monkees, ‘I’m a Believer’

      I know not where this tender love was birth’d,

      though I have watch’d it through the seasons grow.

      The winter broke to flow’ring o’er the earth

      and passion blossom’d in the melting snow.

      These summer nights still seem of heat devoid;

      the darkness threatens harsh and bitter harm.

      And yet, our love doth fill the endless void;

      I feel no worry held within thy arms.

      There is a gentle warmth in thy embrace

      that brings my spirit true romantic bliss;

      I’ll reach my hand t’ward thine in hope to trace

      each other’s heart with holy palmer’s kiss.

      In truth I vow there’s been no better time

      than spent with thee, my sweetest Caroline!