Revere God; raise your voice.
Make daily praise your choice.
Through deeds, show loved ones care.
Of friends’ needs, be aware.
Help those with less than you;
good deeds will bless you too.
To self be true, I’ve heard*.
Set free your dreams deferred.**
*“To thine own self be true” from Shakespeare’s Hamlet: Act I, Scene 3,
Polonius speaking
**reference to “A Dream Deferred” by Langston Hughes (“What happens to a
dream deferred?”)
July 2, 2020
Contest: Verses in Essence, 8 lines Placed 1st
Sponsor: Joseph May
Categories:
polonius, care, life, love,
Form: Verse
"To thine own self be true."*
No matter what else you do....
this truth will get you by
Look others in the eye
With sureness take a stand
Your life at your command
Be true to what you say
No pretense in your way
Be proud of who you are
Let knowledge bear you far
Reach up to glowing sky
And if you laugh or cry
Stand up if you should fall
Be true to inner call
If others prove untrue
and leave you feeling blue
With self you'll be at rest
You've done your very best
"To thine own self be true"
To others just be YOU!
Eileen Manassian
*In Shakespeare's play Hamlet, Polonius said this to Laertes, his son, before he set off to France.
Categories:
polonius, character,
Form: Rhyme
O luckless maid! such beauteous
blush with modest blandishments
did'st flash to woo a Prince
o'erthrown, in madness' grasp!
Still-born, ne'er meant to flourish,
true love was the hapless prey,
Polonius lay cold, extinguish'd
by the Dane's misguided sway.
It drove thee mindless, to a frenzy,
death thy only destination,
borne by rippling river's eddy
to thy final resting place.
Categories:
polonius, writing,
Form: Quatrain
O luckless maid! such beauteous
blush with modest blandishments
did'st flash to woo a Prince
o'erthrown, in madness' grasp!
Still-born, ne'er meant to flourish,
true love was the hapless prey,
Polonius lay cold, extinguish'd
by the Dane's misguided sway.
It drove thee mindless, to a frenzy,
death thy only destination,
borne by rippling river's eddy
to thy final resting place.
Categories:
polonius, death,
Form: Quatrain
Long Poems
What is it about long poems?
Won’t people read any more?
They certainly will not accept them for
An anthology, and that is a bore!
People write tiddley poems,
A couple of lines or Haiku
Expecting us all to say jolly good
Followed by Ahs! and an Oooo!
I read a review from a “liker”
Of a poem that’s five stanzas long
They give me five stars, comment on the length,
And I feel I’ve done something wrong.
Shakespeare put it succinctly,
He knew how to make the words fit,
He had Polonius in Hamlet exclaim
“Brevity is the soul of wit!”
This is true if you have something witty
And really clever to say,
But setting the scene and the context
Is what, I think, makes the play.
And don’t get me wrong I like Haiku
I think short poems can be fun,
But you really can say so much more,
In long ones when all’s said and done!
Categories:
polonius, funny, humorous, irony, poems,
Form: Quatrain
O luckless maid! such beauteous
blush with modest blandishments
did'st flash to woo a Prince
o'erthrown, in madness' grasp!
Still-born, ne'er meant to flourish,
true love was the hapless prey,
Polonius lay cold, extinguish'd
in the Dane's misguided sway.
It drove thee mindless, to a frenzy,
death thy only destination,
borne by rippling river's eddy
to thy final resting place.
Categories:
polonius, death, tribute,
Form: Quatrain
O luckless maid! such beauteous
blush with modest blandishments
did'st flash to woo a Prince
o'erthrown, in madness' grasp!
Still-born, ne'er meant to flourish,
true love was the hapless prey,
Polonius lay cold, extinguish'd
in the Dane's misguided sway.
It drove thee mindless, to a frenzy,
death thy only destination,
borne by rippling river's eddy
to thy final resting place.
Categories:
polonius, death,
Form: Quatrain
O luckless maid! such beauteous
blush with modest blandishments
did'st flash to woo a Prince
o'erthrown, in madness' grasp!
Still-born, ne'er meant to flourish,
true love was the hapless prey,
Polonius lay cold, extinguish'd
by the Dane's misguided sway.
It drove thee mindless, to a frenzy,
death thy only destination,
borne by rippling river's eddy
to thy final resting place.
Categories:
polonius, death
Form: Quatrain
O luckless maid! such beauteous
blush with modest blandishments
did'st flash to woo a Prince
o'erthrown, in madness' grasp!
Still-born, ne'er meant to flourish,
true love was the hapless prey,
Polonius lay cold, extinguish'd
by the Dane's misguided sway.
It drove thee mindless, to a frenzy,
death thy only destination,
borne by rippling river's eddy
to thy final resting place.
Categories:
polonius, sad,
Form: Verse