Sonnet XVII by William Shakespeare - Essay Example

A chilly gust ruffled his hair and when he again looked up after settling his generous mane, the vision before his eyes was simply mesmerizing. In that regular New York morning before a professedly regular New York teenager stood a paragon of beauty that by no means could be called regular. Medium height with an erect posture, immaculately contrived proportions, full-bodied without seeming overweight, blooming pale complexion, round face gently tapering into a cute chin, small but well-suited nose, Nordic eyes, and long black hair, somehow that girl was the blend of everything that Daniel had dreamed of in the dreams of which even he was not aware.

The mornings after that morning were not regular, at least for Daniel. He made it a point to be there at the bus stop right in time, even if it meant unkempt hair, forgetting the textbooks at home, missing his breakfast, and whatnot. And when the girl of his dreams arrived at the stop, he used to get lost almost in a state of somnolence, breathless, speechless, scared, not managing to dare to even ask her name. This was Daniel’s morning routine for the next three months, excluding the weekends, which he intensely abhorred. However, before Daniel could muster enough courage to bring the yearning of his soul to his lips, fate had something else in store for him. The girl suddenly stopped coming. For days Daniel arrived at the stop promptly, but, she never showed up. Daniel did not even know her name, what to speak of her phone number, email ID, or address. Time heals everything, at least at a superficial level. Gradually Daniel reconciled to this immense loss, which to a regular New Yorker would have seemed a very regular happening. Still, sometimes there arose in the recesses of his heart a sad but sweet pain, which was to stay with him for years to come.

20 Years Later
Daniel had settled well into his position as a teacher at Kennedy Junior. Though he still seemed strange to the people of his age group, he enjoyed a special relationship with the children he taught. Well, for reasons unknown, Daniel was still a bachelor.
Though Daniel believed that every student was special, Norah had especially impressed him with her creativity and talent and particularly with her language skills. He considered her to be gifted and wanted to talk to her mother about her versatility. Norah had lost her father to the Gulf War. Somehow, whenever Daniel looked into her eyes, they left her awed and fixed, reminding him of some loss, which he often failed to identify or perhaps hesitated from openly acknowledging.

It was a regular school day when the principal called Daniel to his office. Norah’s mother was finally there to meet her favorite teacher. Daniel hastily rushed into the office, as usual in his absent-minded and lost manner, when he looked up, and there before him were the very same Nordic eyes, which had marooned him on the island of loneliness, years ago. Read More