Cracking Shakespeare

Two weeks ago I ran into an old childhood friend that I went to elementary and middle school with. I noticed her from afar when I was working at the CA State fair and called our her name. It was a very exciting reunion. After sixth grade she went to an art charter school for the end of middle school and on to high school, while I remained in public school. When asking her about her current state, she confirmed she was attending school in Ashland, Oregon studying Shakespeare and theater, which like most faithful English saints know, Ashland is the heart of the Shakespeare festival and study. I laughed with joy. "How exciting!" I said. I told her about my English studies which brought us to talk about our separated interests now in our adult years. I confided that in my trip in September (which is in exactly one month today, I might add!) I will have the opportunity to attend "Hamlet" in the Globe Theater in London. Needless to say, when it comes to William Shakespeare, Theater and English majors will always join forces to unite. So as any good, true English major, I will dedicate this blog post to Shakespeare. I will give you my thoughts and feelings on him and a little bit of history.

William Shakespeare. How do I feel about William Shakespeare? I wouldn't quite say I'm one of those English majors that's completely in love with him and still thinks he's still alive somewhere (the theories I've heard countless times...the poor guy would be ashamed). I also definitely would not say I'm spiteful of him because of the endless hours I've spent in school listening to 70-year old teachers monotonously read his works and pretending I actually understand what I'm reading. Lets have a little integrity with each other for a moment-- I'd say about 10% of people actually fully understand Shakespeare and 90% pretend they do. And those 10% are found in Ashland, Oregon. (A little joke for you.) So here is where I stand with him: though hard to decode his work and not an easy read, I acclaim William Shakespeare and will always appreciate what he has done for literature. Probably my favorite play of Shakespeare is "Hamlet," where I really connected with Shakespeare and felt the passion of his theme of illusion versus reality in life. The most recent work I read was Macbeth, where I really liked exploring with Shakespeare the darker side of human nature and how he left readers to question where their own ambitions could leave them. Most of all, and easier a read I believe, I love Shakespeare's sonnets on love. His views and take on romance really leave me something to marvel at and help me feel something in my heart, which is the purpose of all poetry and writing. Whether William Shakespeare is his real name or not, dead or alive, people miss the true importance of what he has done. You do not have to understand or be in love with his work to really value what he has done for the world. Heck, he has a whole period of the English language named after him! (The History of the English Language, David Crystal). Many of the words we speak today are because of Shakespeare and how he altered English. He created a new era and dynamic of playwright, created a new genre, created countless words, created new types of poems and explored deeper sides of love and life. When I read his works, I feel the passion and the brilliance bursting through the page, even if I can't always decipher what it means. If you do not read his sonnets because you do not understand the expressions or definitions of words, at least read it because of the softness of his language on your tongue and how it feels to speak in his carefully crafted pentameter.

William Shakespeare's birth date is unknown but it is recorded that he was baptized April 26th, 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. A little bit of demographics for you: his works include 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and two long narrative poems. His plays have been translated into every known language and performed more than any playwright ever in history. Married at age 18 to 26-year old Anne, he begot a daughter and a set of twins, one of the twins dying at the age 11. It is unknown when exactly Shakespeare began writing, but records show his first play was on the London stage by 1592. Shakespeare kept writing up until three years before his death in 1616, then he was buried in the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon. Something I will have the privilege of seeing when I travel there.

A quick word about his the Shakespearean style to really grasp the beauty of his work: his standard poetic form was blank verse composed in Iambic pentameter-- something he created himself. His work made a lasting impression on theater today because he created the ideas of tragedy related to romance and soliloquies to explore character's minds. The marvelous things he has done for history! We could go on and on. But I will end with even Shakespeare created theories on human nature, called Shakespearean psychology which was explored by Sigmund Freud.

Acclaimed author, pronounced dramatist, rejoiced poet, celebrated creator, and brilliant theorist. William Shakespeare made a dent in human civilization. What he has done relates to every side of the human spectrum-- not only the Iambic pentameter fanatics. I suppose the whole purpose of my writing this day is to urge my readers to give Shakespeare a chance. I encourage everyone to find something in Shakespeare that relates to him or her. Whether you choose to read him for his common themes in his work, choose to speculate at his creation, or would simply read him just because of his impact in our language, open a book or look online and read. He has quite the selection for every single person. This is our culture and life he writes about and I strongly believe he has written these things for our day.

I highly honor William Shakespeare and what he has done for me as a writer and reader. He has opened new doors and given me hope as I write poetry and short stories. I have an understanding that I do not need to showcase any obsession or fanfare for his works; all I need to do is simply appreciate him, even if at times I can only try to understand his works and sometimes succeed to only a minimum. Now, I love his dramas and the themes I can find in them, but I believe my writing is mostly based on poetry. I love poetry and everything about it. So below, I have posted two of Shakespeare's sonnets, which I think are written beautiful beyond measure. Normally I would go to analyze and give my thoughts on them for my readers, but this time I am simply going to post them and leave all to figure out the meaning and truly appreciate beauty of the Shakespearean language. Let this be a soloist journey to crack Shakespeare, and welcome him into our lives.

Sonnet 18, William Shakespeare
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.


Sonnet 116, William Shakespeare
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.