A Sonnet Inspired by Marlowe's Faustus

[alatos]

Edit 1:
I too, like Faust, have sold my timeless trace,
exchanging four and twenty unstained years
for an eternity in the embrace
of what before me endlessly appears.
My deathless soul? I killed it with a kiss,
and now a wasting body slithers on
through its return to dust, to Abaddon:
unfading rapture given up for this?

My Amaranth is gone – betrayed unto
the Jungle’s weeds. Ambition’s Judas gave
my substance for some forty coins, a life
abandoned for a gilded fortune; threw
away my heart, still pumping, to the grave,
carved out by desperate Simon Peter’s knife.


I too, like Faust, have sold my timeless trace,
exchanging four and twenty unstained years
for the eternity in the embrace
of what before me endlessly appears.
My deathless soul? I killed it with a kiss.
And now a fading body slithers on
through its return to dust, to Abaddon:
perennial rapture given up for this?

My Amaranth is gone – betrayed unto
the Jungle’s weeds. But unlike Faust, I gave
my substance for the future, my living
for a gilded fortune. My lips accrue,
as they repent, no pity from the grave,
no peace, no hope: time is unforgiving.