“Lest the wise world should look into your moan, <br />And mock you with me after I am gone.” – W. Shakespeare <br /> <br />1. <br /> <br />No, I don’t think you Shakespeare would have <br />ever thought of your quills as things necessarily <br />different from buttons on my keyboard, and of paper <br />as poles apart from my computer screen; though <br /> <br />all that visible ink always painted your fingers, <br />the other ink in thoughts garnished with your feelings, <br />mine remain unmarked. Anyway, the thing is – all <br />of your journeys you put down on uneven pages <br /> <br />for one generation of book-worms after another <br />ended in life’s farthest regions far beyond the horizon, <br />with flags of your triumph fast flying. I wonder <br />if you would have now bought an air-plane ticket. <br /> <br />We all hollow poor puppets do nothing but follow <br />the tracks tycoons have trodden for a hard bargain. <br /> <br />2. <br /> <br />I think we have barely gone past the ditch before, <br />that’s full of wriggling worms and dirt for sure – let <br />alone be so adventurous in your mind’s vehicle. <br />Dead tired as I am of pretty false glimmers, <br /> <br />cranks’ despair and all that jazz, I still remember <br />‘the hand that writ it’ – roughly separated by a gulf <br />that comes between centuries and continents. <br />Yes, seeing all the virtues ‘rudely strumpeted’, <br /> <br />roadside beggars ‘needy nothing trimm’d in jollity’ <br />and man’s ingratitude so much slicing as winter wind, <br />you shouted, ‘The holy! This life is most jolly.’ <br />Oh, lords of the wise world must have thought: <br /> <br />from this world of lost content you fled to dwell <br />forever with vilest worms with such goddamn glory!<br /><br />Sofiul Azam<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/shakespeare-s-quills/
