Oh no! Not him again! The despair descends on the class
As the teacher tells us, “Get out your Shakespeare.”
We call him Bill Waggadagga, trying to make light of it;
But he is not funny, to our immature minds.
What will it be today?
Alas poor Yorick, I knew him well,
Friends, Romans, Countrymen, or,
Once more unto the breech.
Not that it really matters, why can’t we have modern works,
Ones that we understand, ones that mean something
To our immature minds
We don’t understand these strange words!
The teacher seems to want a pound of flesh,
I would willingly pay just to miss, this
Incomprehensible drivel,
Being fed to us with a big shovel.
We’re told he is important in English Literature
Why, if we don’t know what it means?
How can we appreciate it, at a time when,
We are not remotely interested
I wonder how many people, out there,
Do not know, or wish to know, about Shakespeare
Because they were force fed, his uncomprehended words at school.
I know that I am one!
-
Author:
Goldfinch60 (Pseudonym) (
Offline) - Published: April 10th, 2022 01:12
- Comment from author about the poem: Back in the day when I was at school Shakespeare was thrust down our throats and it put me off him completely. I went and saw Macbeth a few years ago and it confirmed my feelings about him!
- Category: Reflection
- Views: 21
Offline)
Comments9
Good write Gold.
We had Chaucer in his olde language. Very difficult and frustrating, with no translation.
But I read The Canterbury Tales later on, with the old words explained, and it was enjoyable.
Thanks Orchi.
I had a relative who could recite some of the Canterbury Tales in Olde English and then translate them into modern English. She taught Princess Anne at Benenden School.
Andy
I'm with you - I never understood it then and still don't. Would love to see a play in modern English but the purists would be up in arms and the storey lines (bit like opera) are so silly that I doubt if ever I would still be in the theatre for final curtain.
Thank you Michael, I agree.
As to opera, to me the words are an ancillary part of the music, the music astonishes me. We went and saw Rigoletto a few weeks ago - it was superb.
Andy
Yes I do like opera for the arias but the story lines ... well I ask you !!
I was definitely not a Shakespeare fan in school but wouldn't mind seeing a play now, just not gonna get out one of his books...lol. Except that one poem, "(something about) a summers day? Though art more lovely and more temperate."
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
That's it! That's the one! Thank you for typing that out for me, I just love it!
As a victim (joking) of secondary education i was not priveledged to having the bard rammed down my throat. All I know about the chap and his works are the scraps which have come my way and been pushed away by me rather quickly. Macbeth was on the TV recently and I decided to indulge, to see what i was missing. What a load of twaddle i found myself enduring. It wasn't long before i changed channel.
I've encountered people who love the stuff though one comes to mind who i think was rather in love with the idea that they should be perceived as a bard lover rather than the real mc coy.
I had the same feeling when I went and saw Macbeth, what a load of twaddle.
Andy
I was not exposed to Shakespeare in high school and came to the bard as an adult, so my experience is a bit different. I had the luxury of choice. While my ear is not a tuned to the English of his time, I have managed to get the gist of the stories, and have found some story lines that reverberate today. I love the words, and the beloved actors who have spoken them. I have taken my granddaughters twice to see Shakespeare in the park and it was something we could enjoy together. Shakespeare is certainly not for everyone. And you are right, the best way to turn people off of something is to force feed it to them. Now ice cream, that's a different story. Maybe if you'd been given 3 scoops of chocolate with Hamlet it would have been different. Good Write dear friend!
Only three scoops, OK that would be enough for starters.
Thank you for your understandable comments Bella.
Andy
A very different subject today dear Andy
Well I have mixed feels over Shakespeare
I did like Julius Caesar
But Romeo and Juliet I found it too cliche
So kind of neutral to him
Thank you spilleronsheet,.
https://youtu.be/h6BJJe9JV_A
Andy
Shakespeare is not for everyone,
Very true Melissa.
Andy
You may be right or wrong Andy but .the. literature you studied might have made you a great poet and our gain at MPS
So very kind tkkkk, thank you.
Andy
Exactly. I feel that most people get turned off by the idea of poetry because of the ways they were introduced to it. Schools make it seem complicating and dull but I hope that a new light would be shed on the art that is poetry!
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