Friday, June 29, 2007

Friday morning poetry break

The Globe Theater burned to the ground on on this day in 1613. In case you've forgotten your high school English class, the Globe was for many years the most popular theater in London. It was also the theater where many of Shakespeare's greatest plays were performed.

Sonnet 55

Not marble nor the gilded monuments
Of princes shall outlive this powerful rhyme;
But you shall shine more bright in these contents
Than unswept stone, besmear'd with sluttish time.
When wasteful war shall statues overturn,
And broils root out the work of masonry,
Nor Mars his sword nor war's quick fire shall burn
The living record of your memory.
'Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity
Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room,
Even in the eyes of all posterity
That wear this world out to the ending doom.
So, till the judgment that yourself arise,
You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes.

— William Shakespeare

If you'd like to read more, please take a trip over to the The Writer's Almanac.

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