SHAKESPEARE SAID (PART 2)

 

                SHAKESPEARE SAID (PART 2)

1.    The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.

2.    Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.

3.    Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?

4.    When love speaks, the voice of all the gods make heaven drowsy with the harmony.

5.    Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds.

6.    Love is 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.

7.    Love’s fire heats water, water cools not love.

8.    Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.

9.    Love is not blind; it has twenty pairs of eyes.

10.Love  can comment upon every woe.

11.Lovers are given to poetry, and what they swear in poetry may        be said as lovers they do feign.

12.Every subject’s duty is the king’s, but every subject’s soul is his        own.

  13. Horses are tied by the head, dogs and bears by the neck,                    monkeys by the loins, and men by the legs: when a man is                  over- lusty at legs, then he wears nether-stocks.

14.    Fie on sinful fantasy! Fie on lust and luxury! Lust is but a                    bloody fire, kindled with unchaste desire.

15.    Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.

16.     Men are April when they woo, December when they wed:       maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes                when they are wives.

17.      Memory is the warder of the brain!

18.      What a piece of work is a man ! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!          

19.         The quality of mercy is not strained, it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven, upon the place beneath: it is twice blessed; it blesseth him that gives and him that takes. It is mightiest in the mightiest. It becomes the throned monarch better than his crown. His sceptre shows the force of temporal power; the attribute to awe and majesty, wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; but mercy is above this sceptred sway.  It is enthroned in the hearts of kings.  It is an attribute to God himself. An earthly power doth then show likest God’s when mercy seasons justice.

 

20. To be, or not to be. That is the question: whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them. To die ---to sleep, no more; and by a sleep to say we end the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to. It is a consummation devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep; to sleep, perchance to dream –ay, there is the rub: for in that sleep of death what dreams may come, when we have of this mortal coil. Must give us pause –there is the respect that makes calamity of so long life. For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, the oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, the pangs of disprized love, the law’s delay, the insolence of office, and the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes, when he himself might his quietus make with a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear, to grunt and sweat under a weary life, but the dread of something after death, the undiscovered country , from whose bourn no traveller returns, puzzles the will, and makes us rather bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all, and thus the native hue of resolution is sicklied over with pale cast of thought, and enterprises of great pith and moment with this regard their currents turn awry and lose the name of action.

                                 

                                  (Concluded)                                                                                     

                                   *********

                                 

G.R.Kanwal

26 May 2026

SHAKESPEARE SAID (PART 1)

 

                                SHAKESPEARE SAID (PART 1)

1.     The sun with one eye vieweth all the world.

2.     Golden lads and girls all must as chimney-sweepers come to dust.

3.     Great cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast.

4.     Britain is a world by itself.

5.     Small showers last long, but sudden storms are short.

6.     The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.

7.     The eye sees not itself.

8.     Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud.

9.     True nobility is exempt from fear.

10.                         It is sin to flatter.

11.                          Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.

12.                         Wise men never sit and wail their thoughts.

13.                         The rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance.

14.                         Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly.

15.                         A friend should bear his friend’s infirmities.

16.                         Lord! We know what we are, bu know not what we may be.

17.                         We cannot but obey the powers above us.

18.                         Give me a heart replete with thankfulness.

19.                         To weep is to make less the depth of grief.

20.                         As swift as thought.

21.                         Unquiet meals make ill digestion.

22.                         No legacy is so rich as honesty.

23.                         Corruption wins not more than honesty.

24.                         Give me a staff of honour for mine age, but not a sceptre to control the world.

25.                         The miserable have no other medicine but only hope.

                                                *******

                        To be continued tomorrow :  26 May 2026 (As Part 2).

 

Note: Shakespeare’s full name was William Shakespeare. He was both a poet and playwright. Born on 23 April 1564 at Stratford-upon-Avon , United Kingdom,  he died there on the same date in 1616.  Rightfully enough,even today he is regarded as world’s greatest dramatist.   

 

G.R.Kanwal

25 May 2026

                                   

 

 

 

 

 

A S0NNET BY SHAKESPEARE

 

                               

                                A S0NNET BY SHAKESPEARE

         

            The English poet-playwright William Shakespeare  (1564-1616 ) wrote 154 sonnets (poems comprising 14 lines each).

 

            Almost  all of them are love poems and celebrate the subjects of  beauty, time, mortality,  longing, pain, hope and despair.

           

            Some of them are about the eternal loveliness of  a ’Fair Youth’ and a mysterious woman  the “Dark Lady”.    

 

                The sonnet given below is about a “Fair Youth.” Its subject is his immortality,  as the poet says :

 

“Thy eternal summer shall not fade.

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st

Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade.  

 

                Here is the full text :

 

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 dimm'd;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;

Nor shall death brag thou wander’st 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.

                                                *******

G.R.Kanwal

24 May 2026

 

A POEM FOR LOVERS

 

A POEM FOR LOVERS 

            Love is defined as a strong feeling of deep affection for somebody, may be a member of your family, or a friend, or somebody by whom you have been emotionally or romantically attracted.

            One whom you love, apart  from a member of your family,  may be a boy friend, girlfriend, woman friend, lady-love, paramour, mistress, etc.

             Temporary love affairs are like fair weather friendships. True love is an everlasting relationship.

            In the words of the English poet William Shakespeare (1564-1616)  :

            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.  

         

          Given below is a poem titled :

         

          We Have Lived And Loved Together

 

It is written by Charles Jefferys , an English publisher and composer of songs (1807-1865).

 

             In the opinion of a prominent literary critic the poem  mentioned above celebrates enduring romantic commitment, and explores the themes of shared companionship, resilience through hardships, and love that outlasts the changes of time.

 

            Here is the full text of the poem:

 

We  have lived and loved together

     Through many changing years;

We have shared each other’s gladness

     And wept each other’s tears;

 

I have known ne’er a sorrow

     That was long unsoothed by thee;

For thy smiles can make a summer

     Where darkness else would be.

 

Like the leaves that fall around us

     In autumn’s fading hours,

When the cloud of sorrow looms

     And sadness on us showers;

 

And though many such we’ve known, love,

     Too prone, alas, to range,

We both can speak of one love

     Which time can never change.

 

We have lived and loved together

     Through many changing years;

We have shared each other’s gladness

     And wept each other’s tears.

 

And let us hope the future

     As the past has been will be:

I will share with thee my sorrows,

     And thou thy joys with me.

                                                            *******

G.R.Kanwal

23 May 2026

TRUE LOVE IS RARE

 

          TRUE LOVE IS RARE

            Love is defined as a strong feeling of deep affection for somebody or something.                                  

            Some synonyms of love are affection, attachment, fondness, friendship, attraction, and liking. All these terms do not have exactly the same meanings. For example, affection is kindly feeling, deep, tender, and constant, but it is less fervent and ardent than love.

              Love is an intense and absorbing emotion. It causes a person to appreciate, and crave the presence or possession of a person whom he loves.

 

              Love is not limited by animal passions.  It can be the sublimest and holiest spiritual affection as when you say “I love my mother” or express your belief  “God is love.”

 

              True love is more tender, intense, absorbing, impulsive and passionate than affection. It is endless, survives all chops and changes, ups and downs.  It is eternally loyal, sincere and faithful.   

 

             Look at the following sonnet by William Shakespeare (1564-1616).

“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 bried hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom. -----Sonnet CXVI

 

            In another sonnet (CXIX) Shakespeare says:

Ruin’d love, when it is built anew,

Grows fairer than at first, more strong, far greater.

            To conclude , here is a famous quote by the French author Abbe Hugo Felicite Lamennais (1782-1854):

           

            The heart  of him who truly loves is a paradise on earth; he has God in himself, for God is love.

 

                                                            ***********

 

G.R.Kanwal

22 May 2026

 

 

 

SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT DREAMS

               

                   SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT DREAMS

          A dream is defined as a series of images, events and feelings that happen in our minds while we are asleep.

          It is also defined as a wish to have or be something , especially one that is difficult to achieve.

          Some synonyms of dreams are : fantasies, reveries, fancies, hallucinations, and visions. Their antonyms are : facts, certainties,  realities, realizations, substances, and verities.

 

          The American Unitarian divine Frederick Henry Hedge (1805-1890 ) said: Dreaming is an act of pure imagination, attesting in all men a creative power, which, if it were available  in waking, would make every man a Dante (an Italian poet 1265-1321 ) or a Shakespeare (English poet-playwright 1564-1616).  

 

          The English dissenting clergy William Benton (1802-1882) said : Nothing so much convinces me of the boundlessness of he human mind as its operations in dreaming.   

 

          Shakespeare rightly exclaims: Let not our babbling dreams affright our souls!

 

          The American poet Louise Driscoll (1875-1957) is who is also  famous for her poem Hold Fast Your Dreams “ emphasizes emotional preservation through idealism, advocating for a private inner space where dreams remain insulated from external harshness.”  She  regards dreaming not as escapism but as necessary resistance against societal and existential decay.”

 

             Dreams can be turned into inspirational thoughts carrying  positive hopes and desires.

         

          Persons without dreams , at any time of their life, are not fully alive and dynamic.

             

          Louise Driscoll’s wisely advises in her poem Hold Fast Your Dreams:

         

          Hold fast your dreams!

          Within your heart

          Keep one still, secret spot

          Where dreams may go,

          And, sheltered so,

          May thrive and grow

          Where doubt and fear are not.

          O keep a place apart,

          Within your heart,

          For little dreams to go!

         

                    To conclude, here is a famous quote by the American poet Walt Whitman (1819-1892):

 

                   “Keep your face always toward the sunshine ----and shadows will fall behind you.”

 

                                      *******

G.R.Kanwal

21 May 2026

         

SHYLOCK’S SPEECH IN SHAKESPEARE’S PLAY

 

                SHYLOCK’S SPEECH IN SHAKESPEARE’S PLAY                 

            The father of the Indian nation Mahatma Gandhi (Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi 1869-1948) said : “All Men Are Brothers.”

            The English poet, translator and travel writer James Harold Kirkup (1918-2009) says in his poem titled NO MEN ARE FOREIGN:

            Remember, no men are strange, no countries foreign,

            Beneath all uniforms, a single body breathes

            Like ours : the land our brothers walk upon

            Is earth like this, in which we all shall lie.    

 

            And in the concluding lines of his long poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,  the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) says:

           

            He prayeth well, who loveth well

            Both man and bird and beast.

            He prayeth best, who loveth best

            All things both great and small;

            For the dear God who loveth us

            He made and loveth all.

           

            In Act III , Scene 1 of his  play Merchant of Venice, the British poet-playwright  William Shakespeare (1564-1616 ), reproduces  a famous speech   by  Shylock, a money-lender Jew, treated unfairly by  Antonio , a Christian who has taken loan but not repaid , thus entitling Shylock to take a pound of Antonio’s flesh as per a clause of the written agreement.

 

             The core idea of the speech  is that Shylock has the right to be as revengeful to Christians as they are to Jews.   

 

            Here is full text of Shylock’s speech.

           

            I am a Jew

            Hath not a Jew hands,

            organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions:

            fed with the same food,

            hurt with the same weapons,

            subject to the same diseases,

            heal’d by the same means,

            warm’d and cool’d by the same

            winter and summer as a Christian is?

           

            If you prick us, do we not bleed?

            If you tickle us, do we not laugh?

            If you poison us, do we not die?

            And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?

                                                            *******

G.R.Kanwal

20 May 2026