Happy Monday dear readers, today I want to present my all time favorite poet, the person that makes me soul ache and me eyes fill with tears, a poet that means so much to me, to whom I am grateful for all his wonderful plays and sonnets - William Shakespeare! And we will be discussing one of his sonnets in today's Monday Poems, so without further ado:
Today we are reading
FEAR NO MORE THE HEAT O'THE SUN BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Let's get to know William Shakespeare:
William Shakespeare (around 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) - was and English poet, playwright, actor, dramatist and best known writer in the English Literature. Through out his life he wrote 38 plays, 154 sonnets and two long narrative poems. As an actor he also stared in numerous plays and even opened his out theater called Globe. His Romeo & Juliet is my all time favorite tragedy, (which we will be discussing later). Actually until he wrote this play, love wasn't viewed a good subject for plays, and after this play love became the focus of many plays. Also over the years there have been speculation that he didn't write his works but nothing was ever proven.
Fear No More The Heat O' The Sun
Fear no more the heat o’ the sun,
Nor the furious winter’s rages;
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, and ta’en thy wages:
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
Fear no more the frown o’ the great;
Thou art past the tyrant’s stroke;
Care no more to clothe and eat;
To thee the reed is as the oak:
The scepter, learning, physic, must
All follow this, and come to dust.
Fear no more the lightning flash,
Nor the all-dreaded thunder stone;
Fear not slander, censure rash;
Thou hast finished joy and moan:
All lovers young, all lovers must
Consign to thee, and come to dust.
No exorciser harm thee!
Nor no witchcraft charm thee!
Ghost unlaid forbear thee!
Nothing ill come near thee!
Quiet consummation have;
And renownèd be thy grave!
I think this poem is about death and what is waiting after. I actually don't think it's sad or anything, I think it's poetic and romantic. To me it's told from the point of view of a person who telling someone who is either dying or already death that he should not fear death, because we are all bound to die. I actually have an image of a young beautiful blonde girl sitting in a chair with her nightgown looking through a window and Death himself sitting next to her in all black but in a form of a human, and telling her this poem, gently, slowly, calmly to kind of make her relax and accept her fate. He sort of tells her all the good points of dying all 'lover mush die', meaning every one has to die, and she doesn't have to be afraid of anything anymore and she should welcome it. Ah, I just love love love this poem! Am I crazy? Perhaps, but I'm Shakespeare Crazy!
p.s. This picture was taken years ago, in a wax museum, but this is Mr. Shakespeare and me!
What did you think of FEAR NO MORE THE HEAT O'THE SUN?
