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> WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, All the World's a Stage
Psyche
post Jun 11 08, 12:56
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Group: Praetorian
Posts: 8,875
Joined: 27-August 04
From: Bariloche, Argentine Patagonia
Member No.: 78
Real Name: Sylvia Evelyn Maclagan
Writer of: Poetry & Prose
Referred By:David Ting



All the World’s a Stage

by William Shakespeare


All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

by William Shakespeare


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jgdittier
post Jun 15 08, 08:57
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Real Name: Ron Jones
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Dear Sylvia,
Since metre is my matrix I certainly should respond here. It's not that I feel my metre is all that meretorious, just that it's my thing. I'm well aware I stretch it and use it such that other aspects of poetry are diminished, but it's the prime force that keeps me posting at all.

I've read "All the...." several times just now and remember much of it from high school. I hated Shakespeare those 60 years ago but in these last 7 years learned to enjoy his work more and more. It seems noble, more magestic than anyone else's I've ever read. I'm sad to say, I cannot put into words just why. Part of it is I understand well the thrust of his comment while at the same time recognizing how he's matched his thoughts with symbols and images far from what prose would allow.

Poetry with multi interpretations has always confused me and so that might be the main reason I like the way he writes. I went for a yellow highlighter, copied the page and began to try to scan the piece. I tried not to impose my typical sing-song on it, but read it as I believe it's spoken from the stage.

I've long written verse to include in it as much music as I might. Here is a composition where I believe its writer did not struggle long and hard to achieve its musicality, but rather, was endowed to write with such flow naturally. Shakespeare to me, never had to contort a sentance to instill his music in it. If he inverted the verb or came up with a laughable allit like "shrunk shank", it seems to me to be wholly masterful rather than corny, which would probably be the call now with the profs and their red pens.

It is true too, that I may have been brainwashed as a juvenile about the glories of Shakespeare, hated his work during my contrary years and now am the result of those early lectures. This I question but don't believe. I'm a doubting Thomas in many regards, well out of the political mainstream too. Mr. Shakespeare may have been blessed with the greatest poetic mind ever, but he also had an insightful mind that piloted his efforts to other aspects of life that didn't relate particularly to poetry or playwriting. I expect he'd be a brilliant conversationalist at the Mermaid Tavern and could have been the consummate politician had he the urge. "Seeking the bubble reputation"... could anyone say it better?

I believe also that great writing requires a powerful closing. Could he have been an more powerful with the closing here!
This last hour of reenjoying Shakespeare has been most rewarding to me. Few folks who have poetry as a hobby care a lick as to my thoughts, so your invitation is well appreciated.
Cheers, Ron jgdittier


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Ron Jones

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