Friends, romans, countrymen, lend me your ears,
for mine eyes aren’t enough to behold life’s beauty.
Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind
and sees with a light that in my inner darkness abides.
What light through yonder window breaks?
A golden tone both elegant and soft,
its rich warmth searching for that which lusters.
All that glisters is not gold.
As the trees look in to find their place,
all the world’s a stage
for the doyen of art to show his mastery.
This thing of darkness
hinders our view of what is lovely and
of all that is worthy of mending.
Nothing can come of nothing but
such stuff as dreams are made on.
O, what men dare do!
to leave to rot this chalice of joy.
What’s done is done,
but should not keep one from doing it again
tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow.
Pray we, too, will live our scripts with abandon,
our heart’s stage ever breathing the words of the author.
To him and to thine own self be true.
This is my submission for a One Stop Poetry’s Picture Prompt Challenge. The picture, shown above, led me to interact with remnants of Shakespeare. It’s quite a bit more than just a caption!
See other postings to this prompt here.
March 6th, 2011 at 12:49 am
Creative concept, which you develop wonderfully. The weaving of Shakespearean lines with your own in such a way to remain fluidity brings the “remnants” back to center stage. Thanks for sharing a great challenge response!
March 6th, 2011 at 1:32 am
I agree with dustus..very creative and skillful to take the bard and have a different concept and a different delivery as “all the world is a stage and all the players must suit the action to the word, the word to the action”. Well done. Gay
March 6th, 2011 at 3:59 am
Absolutely brilliant. Very clever and captivating. I will have to come back when I have more time to read it properly as I am supposed to be working at the moment….
March 6th, 2011 at 6:15 am
this is a great write…i love the blend and i too hope we live our scripts with abandon…
March 6th, 2011 at 6:57 am
I almost went down the shakespeare route myslef but I thought someone else would have ran with it! Hello! This is brilliant though, taking the words from Shakespeares most famout and well recognized and interweaving them with your own wit. Thanks for sharing!
March 6th, 2011 at 7:17 am
I never read Shakespeare but I hear bit of it all the time. Thanks for all the references. I too echo the comment above…Live our scripts with abandon.
March 6th, 2011 at 10:01 am
yeah — a great challenge response!
I too wove in Shakespeare — but in a different way.
Love your closing lines:
“Pray we, too, will live our scripts with abandon,
our heart’s stage ever breathing the words of the author.
To him and to thine own self be true.”
March 6th, 2011 at 1:16 pm
I’m not all that familiar with Shakespeare, however, I think you did a great job interweaving your comments throughout his poem or sonnet or whatever it is called.
March 6th, 2011 at 4:42 pm
Excellent/delectable referencing, flow, language choices. Incredible, admirable work.