Shakespeare's Birthday

Celebrating William Shakespeare's birthday (April 23, 1564).

Tell me where is fancy bred,
Or in the heart, or in the head?
How begot, how nourished?
Reply, reply.
It is engendered in the eyes,
With gazing fed.

~The Merchant of Venice, act III, scene ii


Light thickens, and the crow
Makes wing to th' rooky wood.
Good things of day begin to droop and drowse,
Whiles night's black agents to their preys do rouse.

~Macbeth, act III, scene ii

Surprise

Surprise
By Jean Little

I feel like the ground in winter,
Hard, cold, dark, dead, unyielding.

Then hope pokes through me

Like a crocus.

The Three-Legged Dragon

THE THREE-LEGGED DRAGON
By Marie D., age 13

The three-legged dragon
was because of an accident
in a little red wagon

You see this boy
he thought the dragon and
the wagon to be a toy

He pulled it up a hill
with no help from Jill

The dragon was fretting,
the little boy was sweating

When they got to the top
they took a quick stop

On the way back down the hill
They went over a bump
Which caused them to spill

And thus the three-legged dragon.

Until I Saw The Sea

UNTIL I SAW THE SEA
by Lilian Moore (1909-2004)

Until I saw the sea
I did not know
that wind
could wrinkle water so.

I never knew
that sun
could splinter a whole sea of blue.

Nor
did I know before,
a sea breathes in and out
upon a shore.

The Crystal Gazer

This old favorite of mine is from Sara Teasdale's The Crystal Gazer:

I shall gather myself into myself again,
I shall take my scattered selves and make them one,
I shall fuse them into a polished crystal ball
Where I can see the moon and the flashing sun...


Image is from Verrerie d'Art et d'Artisanat de Bréhat