Jonty's sonnet : now with extra 7.1428% verse
Herewith Jonty's amended version = though he thinks they should stand alongside one another as instructive on how hard it can be to add lines later !
The Age of Consent
Should we, six decades past, now give consent
Who long have felt together joy and pain ?
Consenting then, with you to be content
Let come what may. If some speak still of stain
on name and nature,here at least a door
cracks just ajar,faint tracks mark out a way
that one day those who love as we do, more
and more shall then be free and safe to say
they love,and their consent be honoured,held
In law’s protection, just as any seek
A simple human loving: gracious meld
of promises, which none need fear to speak.
Of poorer, richer,well or ill, all true
as in consent,Orlando mine, with you.
The Age of Consent
Should we, six decades past, now give consent
Who long have felt together joy and pain ?
Consenting then, with you to be content
Let come what may. If some speak still of stain
on name and nature,here at least a door
cracks just ajar,faint tracks mark out a way
that one day those who love as we do, more
and more shall then be free and safe to say
they love,and their consent be honoured,held
In law’s protection, just as any seek
A simple human loving: gracious meld
of promises, which none need fear to speak.
Of poorer, richer,well or ill, all true
as in consent,Orlando mine, with you.