Lessons from Shakespeare

Lessons from Shakespeare Here’s a song of tragedies Four plays from bygone times Shakespeare did the penmanship For these heroic crimes. Hamlet was a stately prince King Lear a royal dad Othello was a noble man Macbeth was just plain bad. From these stories we can learn That great men can have flaws And even in this century We all can crash and burn. Come on now and pull your socks up Pull yourself together, Think of your Ophelia who needs you to get better. Will you be or won’t you be - Just make your mind up quick, Before the others bring you down With sword of poison trick. Alas too late revenge is nigh And not the one you thought For old Polonius is dead And you’re the one who’s sought. (Is there comfort in the thought That Hamlet came to know That nothing’s either good or bad But thinking makes it so.) My love and I are just one flesh My Desdemona true The very thought of losing her Just make me feel plain blue They say I have a jealous mind My one and only flaw I think the fault entirely hers Perhaps I should make sure. My first mate says it’s really so So what should I believe? He saw her with his own good eyes Give him her handkerchief. (Iago’s plot to bring him down Succeeded to a T Perhaps Othello’s not so great A captain of the seas.) I love my wife she wants to put A crown upon my head. She tells me that it is my fate There must be some blood shed. And so I tried, upon my life I did what I have done But the dagger that I slew him with Returns to haunt my mind. Yet now I’m king, my wife is queen What more is there to do? My wife appears to lose her wits I’m sure that she’ll pull through. (So it seemed to both of them The way was clearly shown But by snuffing out another’s life Macbeth destroyed his own.) Hamlet was a stately prince King Lear a royal dad Othello was a noble man Macbeth was just plain bad. And through these stories we can see Some universal themes But more importantly than that A world of poetry.