To Be Or Not To Be Poems | Examples

List of Member Poems

Premium Member to be or not to be

I wrote an un-finished
                                  …poem
Well….actually…
                      ….to be continued…..

To Be or Not to Be

Lines of linguistic train wrecks
crash their coupled words
into higgledy-piggledy junkyards.
It's your poem to disown.
but you post it because your mind
craves to see itself on digital paper.

The poem may appear in its Sunday Best
but the bible it clings to is full of gypsy jargon.
Have faith or have no faith,
you must convince a faceless audience
that are already distracted
trying to make sense of their own poetry.

if you get it, you really have not got it.
Like sand through stiff fingers
it shapeshifts onto a white sky -

its then you realize
that the 'submit your poem' option
is, and always was,
a trap.

Premium Member To Be or Not to Be

"To be or not to be?" 
Everyone must say that you see.
Now, that I've said it, too, 
I bid goodbye to you.


Premium Member TO BE OR NOT TO BE: Apropos Of Pondering Self

TO BE OR NOT TO BE
(Apropos Of Pondering Self)

Do not doubt yourself,
Cherish your God given gifts;
Believe in yourself:
No belief in self is bad;
Refusing to is much worse:-

Premium Member AI -To Be Or Not To Be

Why I Abhor Ai Generated Poems Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: JCB Brul  14/6/25

“Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new after all.”
Abraham Lincoln  I assume that goes for women too, Abe!

“An original idea. That can't be too hard. The library must be full of them.”
Stephen Fry


An artificial intelligence - versus the human brain, who wins?

If you change words in  A.I. poems to avoid detection - stop it.

Premium Member Periods and Commas, to be or not to be

 after Poetry is a Recited Art, by Brian Strand 


i am a written not a talking work
and were i there with you to speak this piece
i’d do it as you wish no extra grease
but the medium is wrote that’s it’s quirk

Victor Borge his name i’ll give it’s mark
makes humour of the topic we caprice
my opinion is the fun does not decrease
by giving poems their lurches and a smirk

Ah! See here how, with my punctuation,
I guide your eye, move the rhythm of my
words. A pause, at a natural junction,
Is given you by clever notation—
Don’t be so quick to slander and decry
the period and comma’s vital function.


To Be Or Not To Be The End

When Mr Darcy brought my hand to his lips
Drenched in sweet longing before the scale tips
I, fraught with naivety and desire
Held trust cast into the furnace of mire

Dear friend, two offspring, a dog and a cat
In our fineries we waltzed to 'Take That'
Unbeknown to me, alas we were three
Lipstick etched upon my fine filigree

Teeth gnashing, I challenged indiscretion
He dismissed my genteel inquisition
Contact made with a bedpan appliance
Hence, now divorced in act of defiance

Dear reader, this ends with no tale of woe
On the dating app, I curtsey and go

to be or not to be polite

To be or not to be polite.

I sit on the terrace 
enjoying the spring sun
the sea is calm
I see in my binoculars
the president 
of Portugal taking 
his daily swim
Later in the day 
he will fly 
to Alentejo to 
judge in a dog show
My wife to read 
the Facebook
takes a dislike to 
a red-haired woman
says she is vulgar
tells me to be polite
She has a decorated
walking cane
wears green fingernails
changes the color
of her nails
to match her dress
of the day

To Be Or Not To Be

They will never know,
The pain that sits in these bones,
My recovery is not as simple as it seems,
Mentally i'm falling apart,
I watch those the same age as me,
Smiling, and enjoying one another,
As I sit here locked in these four thin walls,
I can’t leave,
I tried but there is no escape,
My midnights become my afternoons,
As I try to picture the end,
The one where everyone wins,
But I know in my story there's no win,
Because when you think you're almost there,
Someone comes along and hold you under,
Under the cold dark waters,
Should I try to breathe,
Or should I let it be?
There hasn’t been anything but black and white,
Everyone is picking fights,
Why don’t they see,
There slowly killing me,
I tried praying,
I tried changing,
Nothing has worked,
Sometimes I lay here as I would when I take my last breath,
Because they say practice makes perfect,
I’ll never be perfect,
They will never know,
They will never see,
But here they are,
Slowly killing me.

Premium Member To Be Or Not To Be

In Sonnet III, Shakespeare writes as a young man looking in a mirror and wondering if he should impregnate a young woman for his posterity sake.

It begins:

Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest
Now is the time that face should form another.

In my poem, I write as Shakespeare might in 2023. I chose a free verse.

TO BE OR NOT TO BE

see that handsome face in the mirror
you’re a wolf - long hair and beard
whom only a mother could love

mother may I stay single
or should I try to cookie cut another
just like me, a good looking guy
i know

my lady wants me for a husband, but why
should this guy not spread himself around

she’s wide open,
but do I want a kid -
one with long hair and a beard;
perhaps with rings and a tattoo…

my mother’s begging me to settle down,
give her grandkids…
she recalls the day I was born
the sunshine of her life

i do admit I have a certain kind of radiance
now I ask who am I
to be or not to be
the guy who adds a spouse and multiplies

1/13/2022
Shakespeare in 2023
Sponsor: Anoucheka Gangabissoon

Premium Member To Be Or Not To Be

Would I be a man if I had the chance,
To grow hair in strange places and jump up and dance,
Whenever a touchdown is made for my team,
Or a goal scored in Hockey and jump up and scream,

And scare the bejiggers out of my mate,
Even though she is trying real hard to relate,
And understand my excitement when we make first down,
And show she's enthused and tries not to frown.

Would I want to do chest bumps and yell like a monkey,
And scratch, fart and belch and think it's real funny;
Come home from work and sit down on the couch,
Pick up the remote and go into a slouch;

Or should I be satisfied just as I am,
For from the beginning it was God's plan,
To take sugar and spice and things to entice,
And create a woman so things would be nice;

For He first made the man but he wasn't complete,
So He gave him a woman so the poor guy could eat;
For without us the guys just don't stand a chance.
Unless I'm here to help him mine can't find his pants.

Premium Member To Be- Or Not To Be

The quote is from William Shakespeare's play, Hamlet,
spoken by Hamlet in Act 3, Scene 1.

"To be or not to be, that is the question."
   But, what's the explanation of- to be?
Hopes for more than only one suggestion;
   and so, I offer this which pleases me.

To be is that one choice tween life and death,
   not only of the flesh but of the mind. 
And choosing life is being with our breath;
   and feeding thought creates life well-defined.

Yet, some may say that life's not just to be,
   and brush off any joys it holds within;
to shut their minds to blackness others see
   no matter in the ground or 'neath the skin.

Some say great life just happens on its own-
   those highs and lows exist beyond our will;
that happenstance determines path alone-
   in what we'll end up feeling- pang or thrill.

The choice is yours: with hope, it is to be;
   the opposite negates life's grander prize.
Must live life to its fullest guarantee;
   block not- just be, no need to compromise.

Premium Member 'to Be Or Not To Be: That Is the Question' By William Shakespeare

To be or not to be, that is the question, offers a proposition, whereto, the answer is oversimplified because one chooses to make the effort to be, opposes one who will make no effort whatsoever not to be, therefore, the outcome does justify the means based on reason, even a bum, must be able to survive, they need to apply themselves accordingly, basically, be the best bum that they can be to make it to another day because survival requires effort. "Or" is superfluous, in this case, as well as, "not to be".


2020 January 29


“To be or not to be: that is the question” By William Shakespeare

Premium Member To Be Or Not To Be

*Image of Cosmic Levels And React by NASA.

to be or not to be

there would be no fish
if there be no ocean there
would be no birds if
there be no sky and there be 
no me if there be no you

*HMS checked

2020 January 16

To Be Or Not To Be

If Panpsychism were true
—what could ever be false

(Dreamsleep: January, 2020)

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Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.

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