Shakespeare in love

"My love's more richer than my tongue". King Lear Quote (Act I, Scene I).

   There is a Shakespeare in all of us i like to believe! Well, i often quote him in my posts and maybe i have not studied Shakespeare as avidly as a student of literature but i do love his writing for the simple reason it speaks to the common man, speaks to the lover, knight, romantic inside all of us, speaks to the heart and even to the soul. 

   The movie "shakespeare in love" released in 1998 directed by John Madden ,The film centres around the forbidden love of William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) and a noble woman, Viola de Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow).  It is one of my all time favorites for its originality and romance, the way it depicts the bard not as a bald face we are accustomed to see but a young man revelling in love, drunk by it's intoxicating effect, knowing not else to do, but express it with complete lack of inhibition. A young Shakespeare, out of ideas and short of cash, meets his ideal woman and is inspired to write one of his most famous plays. 

   Well, my post is not about the movie,though i recommend you watch it for its all in all awesomeness ;-) and you can read the full review on imdb ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0138097/synopsis) 

     Shakespearean quotations such as "To be, or not to be" and "O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?" form some of literature's most celebrated lines and if asked to recite one of Shakespeare's most famous quotations the majority of people would choose one of these.

    However, many expressions that we use every day originated in Shakespeare's plays. We use the Bard's words all of the time in everyday speech, however, we are often totally unaware that we are 'borrowing' sayings from his work! Will Shake-speare is attributed with writing 38 plays, Famous Shakespearean sonnets and 5 other poems and used about 21,000 different words. Shake-speare is credited by the Oxford English Dictionary with the introduction of nearly 3,000 words into the language. It's no wonder that expressions from his works are an 'anonymous' part of the English language.

   I often try and imitate Shakespeare when having fun with friends and indeed, i realised something that inspired me to write this: that his words come in moments of absolute inspiration.. and i realised also what this must have meant, to be in such a state of inspiration to be the most prolific play wright ever... but i do have my moments and to speak in the Shakepearean way has turned out many an emotion in me... only they appear as sms or chats and i seldom save them... but today morning, while online with a fellow Shakespearean... my dear friend, class mate and elder brother, Mohammed Ansar , we eneded up having one of those moments... 

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12:52 
Mohammed: gm
12:53 
how thee 
me: Gud goes thee day n how art thou dear sir
12:55 
Mohammed: verily the days cometh and goeth, not the gifts bestowed unto thine soul,they are but here to stay
12:58 
me: indeed , how right u speak! but alas!...if only the gifts i wud see and others too :-( !
13:01 
Mohammed: weep not in thy face and rebuke not thine deeds, O mortal flesh for the wretched alone speaketh of their misery nefore their glorious end written in gold and drunk with the wine of victory
13:02 
me: yes... there may be a day wen amn is defeated.. but tis not dis day! 
:-)!
am defeated *
13:04 
Mohammed: have it then that you fall with a smile on your face than a stone in thy heart, for these are the acts of the great knights who stood for what they deared
13:05 
me: hmmm.. bringeth that dragon before me so i may lay him down and a hundred others with a swipe of my sword aa=light in lady loves light!
hahaha
13:07 
Mohammed: bring forth then those dragons that i may slay them with my sword that they fade them into the mist of memories. And bring forth the maiden with golden locks for whose love have i tarried the wrath of the desert and the test of many moons 
;)
13:10 
me: just as the flame that burneth in my heart shall the blade in my hands reflect .... blinding every evil that may foresee in this world and yore
Mohammed: good one 
13:11 
me: :-)
Mohammed: verily i say unto you, thy words shall live yonder than any mare that has dared the perils of the morrow
13:13 
me: yet, is it not a shoulder to rest on and a hand to wipe our face hardened by the mud of many a battle field , the dust of dreaded desert crossings, blood of our inner villains slain encrusted on our brows... yet... isnt that all we really seek.. sigh
13:16 
Mohammed: tarry on young soldier, it is thy destiny that ye may fight those fiercest battles that none dream to triumph. yet it is thy destiny that ye may fight and not seek more than what your blind eyes may behold
13:17 
me: hmm.. tis de sorrow.. tis de sorrow
Mohammed: tarry on tarry on 
ask not more than what you already recieve from the world 
13:18 
me: that is prophetic i tell u . wat i need to hear
13:23 
with a flick of my whip that gets heavier surprisingly, i shall tarry on , the dark n weary steed my only companion, twas like sipping from an urn of sweet wisdom, ur mighty branches to rest beneath, but fr a wink, wel, into the darkness , i set forth, hopefully, the dame of luck shall send me to u yet again.. take care
13:25 
Mohammed: let not the flame of hope die in you

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   Indeed, we may not be playwrights anymore, but not only his style but his words live on.. and that is the true mark of an artist. inspiring and even giving answers to life's questions.. mostly, by just showing us that the answers are within us.

"Have more than thou showest, speak less than thou knowest, lend less than thou owest". -Shakepeares' King Lear( Quote Act I, Scene IV).

The Triumph of Death

THE TRIUMPH OF DEATH

No longer mourn for me when I am gone
Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell
Give warning to the world, that I am fled
From this vile world, with vilest worms do dwell;

Nay, if you read this line, remember not
The hand that writ it; for I love you so,
That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot
If thinking on me then should make you woe.

O! If, I say, you look upon this verse
When I perhaps compounded am with clay,
Do not so much as my poor name rehearse,
But, let your love even with my life decay;

Lest the wise world should look into your moan,
And mock you with me after I am gone.

W. SHAKESPEARE

This has been a long time in coming, as much as I have wanted to write on the platform of the internet, admittedly I have never had the patience to actually do so and I must say its admirable the way bloggers expound their passion for the medium. Maybe it was a knock-out blow dealt by a recent bout with chickenpox that found in me the time to look within and without, ponder and reminiscent into this that you read…

It may be the early confrontation I have had with death in my life that leaves me with so many questions , yet they cannot be avoided, like a river churning in your heart, ready to explode in any moment of silence into tears …that must be put out there…not able to contain anymore…

“Did death begin my life?...Why my life? Only mine?...Why her?!....

It is ironic that my first blog be about death, death is associated with ending, degeneration, collapse…yet does it have to mean this? Why is it called one of the greatest mysteries of life? If the answers were ready dear reader, we would be on a different paranormal plane…the closest I have come to understanding some of it has been in reading “Life after death – The burden of proof” by Deepak Chopra, an author who inspirationally combines ancient tradition wisdom with path breaking scientific explanations to answer many of life’s searching questions.

“Whatever it is that occurs at death, I believe it deserves to be called a miracle,” he explains. “The miracle, ironically, is that we don’t die.”

And life’s ultimate purpose, he adds, “is to discover who you are. After death, we see more clearly the goals to be attained.

Chopra sees the soul as a process, not a thing: “It is a continuum. It is a dynamic, constantly evolving bundle of consciousness.”

He concludes: “The human spirit is degraded when we confine ourselves to the span of a lifetime and the enclosure of a physical body. We are mind and spirit first, and that places our home beyond the stars.”

One may wonder at why I am smitten by such a terrible fellow as Yama, the Lord of death, but isn’t it part of life just like genesis and growth?...it may be the inability to grow out of an early fateful incident, it may be a continuous state of mourning that I am not able to break away from?..it may be all of it.

So, despite Shakespeare’s best of advise in the poem “The Triumph of Death”;

(“…Do not so much as my poor name rehearse,
But, let your love even with my life decay;

Lest the wise world should look into your moan,
And mock you with me after I am gone...”)

She is a part of me not in this world but beyond and though I am told to forget, how can I, for Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose…and we may not share days together anymore, but the special moments that we shared will last forever… one a friend, one more than a friend, their lose in me, nothing will ever mend.

She strides on,
Drifting left, to right,
Always fumbling, always crumbling,
Away from disapproval.
She strides on,
Backing up, dashing forward,
Nearly losing, nearly dying,
Away from destruction.
She strides on,
Lifting high, digging deep,
Maybe seeing, maybe living,
Away from uncertainty.
She strides on,
Never returning, never stopping,
Away to a better place.