Poetry Friday: {Singing Shakespeare}

Oh, just when the snowdrops were being joined by crocuses, the temps have plunged back into the thirties, and the weather is, once again all frozen mud and Spring setbacks.

I started this week working on the layout of the program for a beloved person’s funeral; good thing there’s one thing I can do long-distance, anyway. It made me feel closer to the family at home, but it was also, undeniably difficult, and when I found out the father of another friend had died, it hit me harder than I expected. Meanwhile, despite my disengaged brain, I’m also still trying to revise a novel, for which my editor is patiently waiting… Obviously it was somewhat of a rocky writing week.

Fortunately, there’s been a lot going on in the internets to make me laugh, and think, and enjoy. I started laughing after visiting Charlotte’s Library, when she directed me to the Science Fiction Character cage match at Suvudu, where I found that that The Wee Free Men were being beaten by Aragorn, unfortunately. However, I’m still giggling that Ged, from A Wizard of Earthsea knows Edward Cullen’s true name…

It was indeed wrong of me to laugh at Edward until I was wheezing, but it was necesssary.

The snickers continued on a visit to Bookshelves of Doom where Leila’s reading slump doesn’t mean she doesn’t still have amusing pop culture references to share. How about an Academy Award-Winning Movie Trailer? Need a nap? Have a Celebrity Lullaby. Just be warned you won’t get much sleep.

I was so delighted by The Hazardous Players, who wrote and introduced themselves to myself and Aquafortis, and invited us to visit their Knighttime series, which is faintly reminiscent of Monty Python and other silly British wits. It’s an ongoing audiotale with sketches and watercolors and we hope to interview the three guys who do the site in depth sometime in the Spring.

“The initial motivation was to see if we could cause our children to laugh, having achieved that with milk through the nose hilarity, we thought that the world of Udenland might be fun to share with others.”

What better motivation to start a story – Dads making their kids laugh! Do check them out; they get even better as they go on.

Finally, I had a reflective visit at Writing & Ruminating, where Kelly was talking about Shakespeare’s “Full Fathom Five” from The Tempest. It is indeed a song, which Celtic Woman has recorded in an eerie, beautiful harmony. The lines are a serene denial of loss, and an embrace of something new… Nothing of him that doth fade/ But doth suffer a sea-change/Into something rich and strange…

Man, that Shakespeare. He mastered a turn of phrase, did he not? Though As You Like It is not my favorite of his plays, this winter poem from that comedy is one of the most beautiful, bitter verses. Other composers have gone with the “hey-nonny” chorus and made it lighthearted and Elizabethan-perky, but I absolutely prefer John Rutter’s haunting composition; it fits the words, and gives the “this life is so jolly” the ironic treatment it deserves.

Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind

Act II, Scene 7 from As You Like It (1600)

   Blow, blow, thou winter wind,

   Thou art not so unkind

      As man’s ingratitude;

   Thy tooth is not so keen,

Because thou art not seen,

      Although thy breath be rude.

Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:

Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:

   Then, heigh-ho, the holly!

      This life is most jolly.

   Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,

   That dost not bite so nigh

      As benefits forgot:

   Though thou the waters warp,

      Thy sting is not so sharp

      As friend remembered not.

Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:

Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:

   Then, heigh-ho, the holly!

      This life is most jolly.

William Shakespeare

(Ironically, while looking for this song, I ran across a random recording by my senior high school choir director’s chorale. Yeah, figure out the serendipitous weirdness of that one. AND they were singing a song I sang in high school… under the same director. Choral music recycles. Forever.)

Poetry Friday today is rounded up at Becky’s Book Blog.