Red Heart :: Black Heart Writing Contest

There were 650 submissions and 46 finalists. My love letter, Rosaline, was chosen as a finalist in the contest.

Click here if you want to see the complete list of finalists. My entry is listed as unititled.

The following is my letter to Romeo from Rosaline. Rosaline is the girl that Romeo is absolutely in love with at the beginning of Romeo and Juliet. He completely forgets all about his love for her when he sees Juliet. I've always felt bad about the way that Romeo treated her and so I wanted to give Rosaline her say.

I took a little bit of literary license but I had a ton of fun. My other two entries were more fun and light-hearted...and less dramatic than Rosaline. I may post them here as well.

My dearest Romeo,

From the very first, you were as beautiful as a God in Heaven; with features shaped from noble granite, eyes as black and fiery as smoldering coal. How could a girl, with a soul as pure as mine and a heart as willing as mine have resisted?

You kissed me and wept like an innocent baby in my embrace. The beauty of our union appeared flawlessly clear to me as I gazed in your burning wet eyes.

A dinner invitation for Mercutio brought you nearer to me at the home of Signior Capulet and when I felt you arrive, my ruby heart rejoiced, flooded with eagerness by your constancy.

Benvolio was the first to work against me. But you, my dear Romeo, stayed true; a claim of pure devout adoring worship dripping from your lovely red lips.

I saw you there across the room. You were looking for me through the wily dancers and gossiping mothers. I wanted to run to you; to have you seize me in your arms again. But your eyes were troubled. They looked elsewhere; they looked naught for me. And then I saw her. I saw your eyes lighting their fire toward her. Your religion showed to me a sham; your words false, your heart now endlessly barren toward me.

I wanted to kill you. I wished to push you in front of a stampeding cart or shoot you with my arrow as you climbed to her window to profess your heavenly love to your angel.

Even my revenge was stolen from me as your own murders and suicides have bound you together with her for eternity.

I loathe your memory and I loathe you for throwing my heart away at your first glance of her. Did my lips not welcome you? Did my body not satisfy?

My bright eyes and scarlet lips are dull and cracked now, Romeo. My heart is blistered and broken. Your son, your only child in all the worlds, now suckles at my empty soul.

Oh, Romeo…Romeo, how could your soul trespass so against mine?

With all the pieces of my broken heart,

Rosaline