O, from what power hast thou this powerful might

With insufficiency my heart to sway?

To make me give the lie to my true sight,

And swear that brightness doth not grace the day?

 

Sonnet 150                                          First Stanza

 

Thoughts? Personally, I can’t help but relate it to current politics, and more specifically to the incumbent. But that’s just me.

 

 

There might you see the laboring pioneer

Begrimed with sweat, and smeared all with dust;

And from the towers of Troy there would appear

The very eyes of men through loop-holes thrust,

Gazing upon the Greeks with little lust:

Such sweet observance in this work was had,

That one might see those far-off eyes look sad.

 

-Narrator

 Lucrece                       line 1380

This is the the part of the poem where Lucrece is walking around the house despondently, and she stops to gaze at a painting of the siege of Troy. You have to read it a few times, and try to get into the frame of mind of Lucrece, who is so down at this point that she feels her life is over. It's a good stanza. A little depressing, but worth the read. 

Also, it helps when you read it (aloud, of course) if you make 'smeared' a two syllable word with the accent on the second syllable: smear - ED. Try to think and talk like a Brit.

Here's my latest project. I've taken out some steps on this deck and I'm going to be replacing them with more bluestone to increase the size of the patio. I can assure you that I got begrimed with sweat, and smeared all with dust, but I don't think too many eyes were on me, and there was certainly no lust involved.

 You have undone a man of fourscore three,

That thought to fill his grave in quiet, --yea,

To die upon the bed my father died,

To lie close by his honest bones! but now

Some hangman must put on my shroud, and lay me

Where no priest shovels-in dust.—O cursed wretch,

That knew’st this was the prince, and wouldst adventure

To mingle faith with him!—Undone! Undone!

If I might die within this hour, I have lived

To die when I desire.

 -Shepherd

 The Winter’s Tale                                Act IV, scene iii, line 461

 

That’s a pretty wordy shepherd.

Fourscore three. That’s pretty old. Not quite as old as fourscore and seven, but still pretty old. Do you think that one of our favorite bardolaters got the idea for the start of he speech from here? Or was fourscore once a common expression. I surely do not know. Exciting to think that Will was present in the Gettysburg address though, isn’t it?

Where no priest shovels-in dust. That is to say unconsecrated ground. But no, not unconsecrated ground, it’s a place where no priest shovels dust in. I love his word work. I was going to call it wordplay, but it’s not play. It’s at a much higher level than play. But perhaps not work either. Word mastery. How’s that?

Ahhh, but are they really all his own words? We may never know.