calmkate

bard

 

washingtonpost.com

Life had never been easy for the merchant,
Venice was flooding and smelt of sewage
but on the twelfth night Hamlet and Othello
braved the tempest to try and tame the shrew

the exact season is in doubt, not sure if it was
a winter’s tale or a midsummer’s night dream
when this love was lost in labour
Romeo, Juliet, Macbeth and Caesar

duelled for equal attention, cross dressing
in theatre a thespian invention. Cymbelline
another confused romance about royalty …
Billy has entertained us for centuries!

twas a dim winter’s night
frost bit with all tis might
his characters full of insight
love triggered flight or fright

his language colourful, bright
no mundane black or white
gripped in intriguing plight
he shone his light alright

d’Verse, The Bard, Ingrid

I’ve only recently realised that Billy died at only 52 years of age, had written 37 plays and over 150 sonnets, introduced 3,000 new words into the English language, gave the first accurate documentation of PTSD in Macbeth; his life focused around creativity, spirituality and art … what a body of work he blessed us with!

Ingrid asked us to weave these plays into a tribute … I couldn’t resist

Romeo and Juliet
Love’s Labour’s Lost
Twelfth Night
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The Tempest
Othello
Macbeth
The Taming of the Shrew
Cymbelline
A Winter’s Tale
Julius Caesar
Hamlet
The Merchant of Venice

 

27 comments

  3. Outstanding tribute Kate! Your ability to mesh so many elements into poetic verses would thrill the master himself. English literature would seem like a barren landscape without his many works.

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  5. This is the best thing I have read today. So, so interesting. As a Literature student, Shakespeare, his life and even the smallest detail that related to him, were never overlooked. He held a position that no other writers did for our professors. And we had his life history almost by rote by the end of our classes. Macbeth, despite its plot and tragedy remains close to me.

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    • Macbeth is absolutely priceless, so much talent … he didn’t start writing until 25 yo and died at 52yo, so that’s an amazing amount of output for 25 years.

      Let’s pray we do half as well 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

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  7. All’s Well That Ends Well! 😉 HA! 😀
    Excellent, SweetKate! What a creative fun poem! 🙂
    I took a Shakespeare class as a teenager and ended up loving Mr. Shakespeare and his writing. HUGS!!! 🙂
    👑 🗡🧙🎭 🕯💀👩‍❤️‍👨⏳👻 🏹 (HA! Shakespeare-related emojis!)
    Or how about…
    🐝🐝/❌🐝🐝 “To be or not to be…” HA! 🤔 😀

    Liked by 1 person

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    • Great and perfectly interwoven song titles. I am also proud of this poem, as is Shakespeare, whose songs I read and attended theater performances. Thank you for this poem, I had fun searching for the bard’s titles.
      Regards

      Like

      Reply

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