Lord Denney's Players has announced the winners of its third annual sonnet contest. Congratulations to the following award recipients:

• First Prize: "Gray Noise" by Logan Finley, evolution, ecology and organismal biology major
• Second Prize: "Sonnet for Mercenaries" by Judah Clayton, College Credit Plus student
• Honorable Mention: "Sumerian Sonnet" by Heather Radcliffe, linguistics and sociology major
• Honorable Mention: "Revival" by Hannah Zoldesy, political science major

Each year, LDP partners with the Department of English and the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies to invite Ohio State undergraduates from all colleges and majors to submit individual Shakespearean sonnets. Winning sonnets earn $100 for first place, $50 for second place and $25 for honorable mention.

"Gray Noise" by Logan Finley 

I can’t hear anything but lonely sounds.
Unanswered birds call out to empty sky,
Leaves sob and rattle, marked by patient Ground;
Once more we this inheritance divide.

I hear the wind exhume the flaxen bones
Of summer meadows, frozen over now;
To me its joke seems cruel, but it must know
That more will grow and wither anyhow.

I tried so hard to trap your voice in wax,
Tin haunt of unsteeled ears at dusk and dawn,
Each turn wears down the lines to hissing cracks;
I wonder what it’s like to be a song.
I heard you whisper, “I don’t want to die.”
Words lost in tubes and wires with my goodbye.

"Sonnet for Mercenaries" by Judah Clayton

For you, I will leave foreign lands bereft,
Sheath your sorrows in the piles of bone.
Eyes apatite azurite dart with deft,
Heatseeking and keeping us here alone.

For you, I lay waste to that insurmount—
Make boulder of mountain, dust of boulder,
More operations than we care to count,
Go weakling, fleeting, cowardice, smolder.

For you, I let my skin color with rust,
Mingle burn and blood with that of our foes.
United we stand; fester not distrust,
My flesh the vessel of love long ago.

For you I conquer, for you are my king.
For me, you conjure up won’drous things.

"Sumerian Sonnet" by Heather Radcliffe

For every shekel that could ever be made
If we are doomed to die – let us spend;
If we shall live long – let us save.
At dawn our good fortune may upend

The lives of others, on whose back
We aim to break. In order to survive
A perpetual lie states: nations must attack
Those who are most fragile to thrive

Off the iron in blood spilled - lives forever
Changed. The dust from civilizations begin to
Seep into the air of present day, never
Forget that time is cyclical and you, too
Will be remembered as a name, but not the face
Of evils that consume, and death, our only saving grace.

"Revival" by Hannah Zoldesy

It starts with comfort and security 
An eruption and the world lies ahead
A small sapling with only purity 
Full of wonder while all sins stay unread

Summer comes with growth and prosperity
Relationships bloom and now stands a tree
Who views discomfort as a rarity
A world filled with joy and from harm remains free

Winds become colder and leaves start to fall
The tree now barren and still in the cold
Happiness and ease it cannot recall 
and on the world, it is not all that sold

Though it does not know of spring’s arrival
Even in the depths, there comes a revival.