Love Inspires How can my Muse want subject to invent While thou dost breathe, that pour’st into my verse Thine own sweet argument, too excellent For every vulgar paper to rehearse? O, give thyself the thanks if aught in me Worthy perusal stand against thy sight, For who’s so dumb that cannot write to thee, When thou thyself dost give invention light? Be thou the tenth Muse, ten times more […]
Read moreTag: Shakespeare
Sonnets: Shakespeare The Psalmist
For the Down-and-Out When in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes I all alone beweep my outcast state, And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, And look upon myself and curse my fate, Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, Featur’d like him, like him with friends possess’d, Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope, With what I most enjoy contented least; Yet in these thoughts […]
Read more
“Hamlet” by William Shakespeare
To be, or not to be, it matters not. To Shakespeare, the world is a stage, so the relationship between the play and the actor is akin to that between Life and man. He introduces a play within a play in Hamlet, in order that the theatre audience may recognize the similarity. As a character, Hamlet is almost paralyzed, like a bad actor who is incapable of enacting the art […]
Read moreTolstoy on Shakespeare
[Posted to commemorate the 185th anniversary of Leo Tolstoy’s birthday] Tolstoy was a bona fide iconoclast, who was not afraid to think and speak for himself, and did so with the force of reason and conviction, as is evident in his critical essay on Shakespeare. Comparing Shakespeare with Homer However distant Homer is from us, we can, without the slightest effort, transport ourselves into the life he describes,…because he believes […]
Read more
“Julius Caesar” by William Shakespeare
This Roman play by Shakespeare is based on Plutarch’s Lives of Caesar and Marcus Brutus. One might call it an adapted stage play, since the majority of the plot and dialogues derive from Plutarch. There is a significant difference between the two renditions. For Shakespeare failed to capture the complexity, magnificence, and more importantly, the moral and political philosophy of the noble Romans. Depiction of Characters Julius Caesar, the title […]
Read more“The Tragedy of Macbeth” by William Shakespeare
[Posted on the day of the Boston Marathon bombing] The Tragedy of Macbeth is a psychological portrayal of two murderers, deceived by illusions, goaded by ambitions, and driven to despair. Two people, though alive, yet were long dead. Kierkegaard would characterize Macbeth as in despair wanting to be himself, because he was past the point of no return, and Lady Macbeth in despair not wanting to be herself, because she […]
Read more“The Tragedy of King Lear” by William Shakespeare
Is Shakespeare a Synonym for Greek? I’m amazed how much Shakespeare reminds me of the ancient Greek poets, both in the themes and the dialogues of the plays. Firstly, the style of the dialogues, which I’d call “contrapuntal”, with one high-flown voice of oratory and another plainer often ironic voice acting as commentary and counterpoint, is strikingly reminiscent of Aristophanes. The witty fool, who is wiser than the King, seems […]
Read more