president blink-blink

Apr 21

chiwetel ejiofor declaims — burns through — ‘o, what a rogue and peasant slave am i’ from hamlet.

Apr 2

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

i read william shakespeare’s sonnet 140, because it is shakespeare, and it is my heart.

read the poem here.

Jan 6

“why didst thou promise such a beauteous day,
and make me travel forth without my cloak,
to let base clouds o’ertake me in my way,
hiding thy bravery in their rotten smoke?
‘tis not enough that through the cloud thou break,
to dry the rain on my storm-beaten face,
for no man well of such a salve can speak,
that heals the wound, and cures not the disgrace:
nor can thy shame give physic to my grief;
though thou repent, yet i have still the loss:
the offender’s sorrow lends but weak relief
to him that bears the strong offence’s cross.
ah! but those tears are pearl which thy love sheds,
and they are rich and ransom all ill deeds.”

shakespeare, sonnet 34. my best-loved, hard as it is to choose. others have more ambitious conceits and dazzling footwork, but this one has such mood and verve. “‘tis not enough that through the cloud thou break / to dry the rain on my storm-beaten face / for no man well of such a salve can speak / that heals the wound, and cures not the disgrace:” wah.

Jan 3

“be wise as thou art cruel; do not press
my tongue-tied patience with too much disdain;
lest sorrow lend me words, and words express
the manner of my pity-wanting pain.
if I might teach thee wit, better it were,
though not to love, yet, love to tell me so;
as testy sick men, when their deaths be near,
no news but health from their physicians know;
for, if I should despair, I should grow mad,
and in my madness might speak ill of thee;
now this ill-wresting world is grown so bad,
mad slanderers by mad ears believed be.
that I may not be so, nor thou belied,
bear thine eyes straight, though thy proud heart go wide.” sonnet 140, shakespeare. because i was reading wyatt’s adorable, clever sonnets which are nonetheless beaten absolutely hollow in retrospect.