Core 3 scene 1
The following poem, or soliloquy as it were, has been
inspired by three distinctive texts and/or events. The first, without a doubt, it Shakespeare’s
Hamlet from whom the original text was borrowed. The second inspirational text is by Janet
Holmes and is entitled “The Ms of My Kin”.
This book was originally “The Poems of Emily Dickinson” to which Holmes
applied the art of erasure poetry.
Thirdly, this poem is inspired by the students in my pre-student
teaching AP Literature and Composition course.
Through them I have come to love Shakespeare all over again.
To be, or not to be,
‘tis Nobler
The slings and Arrows
Against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them.
The natural shocks
That a consummation
Devoutly to be wished.
To dream,
For in that sleep what dreams may
Come,
When we have shuffled
Give us pause.
There’s the respect
That makes so long life:
For who would bear the Whips and Scorns of
Teaching?
Who would bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
The undiscovered Country, from whose bourn
No Traveller returns,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have,
Than fly to others that we know not of.
Thus conscience does make us all,
And thus Resolution
Is o’er the cast of Thought,
And enterprises of great moment,
With this regard Currents turn
And name Action.
Soft you now,
Be all my sins remembered.
