Poetic Expressions of Richard III

Cold Soul

(to Shakespeare’s Richard III)

It must be cold

there

in that dark

and (to me)

unfamiliar

place

where you live

(or don’t really

Live) but

shrivel

and warp

 inside until

you (finally)

die

like the many

you killed

heart and body

or tried to drag

(with you)

Down

to be company

for your misery

But instead,

they go

away

to a warm

and (to you)

unfamiliar

Place

Robbed (by you)

of life, but still

(though imperfect)

not

so soul dead

as you,

living wraith

and dying

man

You chose,

instead

(you wanted)

to stay

to live (or not really

Live)

in that cold

and dark

and (to me)

unfamiliar

place

where you (still)

are.

My first goal after reading Richard III was to find any neat poetry or songs either about Richard III, or that I thought expressed him well.

Shakespeare creates a lot of super deep, intriguing characters, and this Richard guy made me almost want to do a psychological profile on him; it was an interesting task trying to come up with words and phrases to describe him.

                As I searched online, I found some interesting poems, but I wasn’t finding a lot that I really loved. I started messing around with more creative phrases to search, and one of the first ones I tried was “poetry about cold souls”. A little weird maybe, but that was the best way I could think to describe this character. He is just cold… not even really raging evil, he’s almost… hollow. He seems to have absolutely no concept of the feelings of others; like a sociopath. Maybe that’s partly what makes him so creepy and so difficult for most of us to understand.

Well, searching “cold souls” didn’t get me much online either, but instead, it kind of inspired me to write my own poetic description of Richard III, which I’ve posted above.  I totally loved writing it, because it got me involved in thinking about, analyzing, and exploring my emotional experience of the play.

Here are a few of the other poems I found…

One last word on Hamlet...

I just wanted to throw in one last little note about my experience reading Hamlet, before I dive into Richard III.

I have a really good friend who I had kind of been discussing Hamlet with as I read it. We talked a lot about what is it that makes it really tragic, on a deeper level than just “everyone dies”.  One of the things we decided was that Ophelia is really one of the most tragic characters. Her death is part of that, but even more so, it’s the fact that she is what other people tell her she is.

I know this idea has been analyzed up one side and down the other by everyone and their dog, but I just kind of had a bit of a cool moment with it this past Sunday. I was showing a bunch of poems that I wrote to my friend, and a couple of my brothers, just gathering input and opinions and such. Someone had launched a discussion about a particular poem called “China Doll”, which goes something like this:

I am the One

with the porcelain skin

And the just-perfect chocolate curls

with the green glassy eyes

and the painted-on lips

and the pasted-on smile at the world

who is shaped to perfection

and dressed to please

and is made out of nothing

but glass

I am the One

who was so clearly made

to sit on a shelf

and be kept far away

from bubbly-rough children

and dirt-covered hands

and from hugs and kisses

and Life

Because, after all

I could break

I am the One

who was made

to be looked at

designed to be flawless

and meant to remain

Untouched

by bubbly-rough children

and dirt-covered hands

and by hugs and kisses

and Love

As we were talking about it, my friend suddenly looks at me with that “aha moment” face, and says, “You know what this poem makes me think of? It makes me think about Ophelia”. At first I was like, “Whaat?”, but then I looked over it again and realized that it kind of expresses a similar kind of pain as I imagine Ophelia struggling with; this idea of being put where you are by someone else, being what they want you to be, and that keeping you from really becoming who you want to be, or feeling the love you want to feel.

I didn’t write this poem with Ophelia in mind, and I know it’s not a perfect fit; but it was cool for me to realize that I can really make connections between feelings I have and ways I express them, and what I find in my study of Shakespeare. 

(Note: since I wasn't able to do a full blown art gallery for Hamlet, I thought I'd just include one of my favorite pieces. It's a creepy picture, I know, but I love how well it captures the tragic element of Ophelia's story.)

My Reading Plan

I have finally managed to put together my basic reading plan for the next 4 weeks of my life. I’m feeling like this will probably work better if I work on a little bit every day, so I’ve just made a list of what I hope to accomplish every day of the week, not just on the days we have class.

For these four plays, I’m going to start by focusing mainly on the “Shakespeare Literacy” learning outcomes for the class. I’ll be doing a lot with the “legacy” bit, by delving into various forms of art that people have used throughout history to express their feelings and/or experiences with Shakespeare’s work. I also hope to find and watch some sort of performed version for each of the plays (if anyone knows of a good version of any of these plays, I’d love suggestions!)

I’m also planning to jot down notes in my trusty

 little notebook about any insights or flashes of brilliant inspiration I happen to have as I’m reading. I’m hoping these will provide some groundwork for the “Analyze Critically” learning outcomes. Hopefully some of those will be coherent enough that you’ll be seeing them on my blog as I go along as well.

After I’ve gotten a more balanced grasp on the “breadth” of Shakespeare literacy, I’d like to choose one of the plays to delve into a bit deeper, and that’s when I hope to go more thoroughly into the critical analysis stuff, and start piecing my random notes together a bit better.

Okay, here’s my reading plan:

Week 4 – History

Richard III
     M  24: Read Act 1
     T  25: Read Acts 2-3
     W  26: Read Acts 3-4
     Th  27: Put together Art/Sculpture Gallery for this play
     F  28: Put together Music/Poetry collection for this play
     Sat  29: Watch a movie version of the play

Week 5 – Comedy

As You Like It
     M  31: Read Acts 1-2
     T  1: Read Acts 3-4 (Aloud with my younger brother and some friends)
     W  2: Read Act 5
     Th  3: Put together Art/Sculpture Gallery for this play
     F  4: Put together Music/Poetry collection for this play
     Sat  5: Watch a movie version of this play

Week 6 – Tragedy

Othello
     M  7: Read Acts 1-2
     T  8: Read Acts 3-4
     W  9: Read Act 5, Discuss with my dad
     Th  10: Put together Art/Sculpture Gallery for this play
     F  11: Put together Music/Poetry collection for this play
     Sat  12: Watch a movie version of the play (with a friend, discuss afterward)

Week 7 – Romance
The Tempest
     M  14: Read Act 1
     T  15: Read Acts 2-3
     W  16: Read Acts 4-5
     Th  17: Put together Music/Poetry collection, Musical performance by my younger brother and some of his choir friends (Possibly moved to Sat 19)
     F  18: Put together Art/Sculpture Gallery for this play
     Sat  19: Watch a movie version of the play

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are definitely dead.

I have now completed my first “trial” and found it to be “error”.

As one of my first outside sources to try using in my study of Hamlet, I decided to watch the famed video, “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead”. I was interested in seeing it, not only because it had been mentioned in class, but because ever since Junior High (ish), I have heard it mentioned by my dad. My dad is something of a Renaissance man and a certifiable closet English nerd. He's described it as a hilarious little spoof. Naturally, I was curious about it, and, as we are now reading Hamlet, I thought this would be a good time to satisfy my curiosity.

Now why, you may be asking yourself, was this “trial” an “error”? First I’d like to put forth my disclaimer; the film was in fact pretty darn funny, and I did enjoy watching it. But watching it made me realize something; funny is just not what gets me excited about Shakespeare.

It sometimes seems to me that there is almost a fad in the world of taking anything well known, be it literature, art, people, or what have you, and “spoofing” it, or making a joke of it. Now, I do enjoy those, especially the ones that can maintain the intelligent side of the humor; it's entertaining and fun. But for me, too much of that kind of that sarcastic interpretation style becomes very draining, and kind of dulls the shine of the sincerity in which a work was originally put forth. I think the thing that really makes literature fascinating to me is when I can delve into the true, sincere emotion of the work, and connect to something I find there on a deep level. (How cool is it that I’m learning about myself and not just Shakespeare here? J)

So, from this my first trial and error, I have decided that for my own personal exploration of Shakespeare this semester, I am going to try and veer away from the “spoof” route, and try to focus more on studying the more emotional and serious aspects. I think that, as I mentioned in my first post, looking at various kinds of art expressions of Shakespeare will be where I explore next.

How Did I Read Hamlet?!?

Today in class Dr. Burton asked us an interesting question. He stood up, crossed his arms over his chest, swept the class with his piercing gaze and asked, “How did you read Hamlet?”

Well, here’s my confession. How did I read Hamlet? I simply opened the book and read it. Why did I do this you might ask? Well, I did it because in virtually every other class I have taken at BYU, that is simply how reading is done. So you can imagine my surprise when Dr. Burton stands up and demands to know how we read it.

Well, because this was somewhat new to my poor academic-lemming way of thinking, I was very intrigued to learn just what other ways there were to read a Shakespeare play, or anything for that matter.

Together, the class came up with some ideas. Some of them involved the use of the internet and the media. Some involved interaction with other people, and some a more deep interaction with our own thought processes. As I listened to and thought about the ideas being presented, I was struck with a very interesting thought.  Some of the “hows” the class came up are things that I actually did do in my reading. For example; summarizing a scene to clarify it in your mind, imagining a performance of what you’re reading, or even coming up with works of art to represent what you’re reading. These were all things that my mind tried to do before I shut it down so I could finish the assignment. How sad that my first instinct was to turn that voice off. And yet, how amazing to discover that this drive for a deeper, richer experience is already inside me, just waiting to be channeled.

This little personal epiphany has led me to want to establish some concrete goals for this class in order to help that little English nerd inside me to blossom and bloom. For now, I have listed some of the things from our class discussion that jumped out at me. This list may change and adapt as the semester goes on, but for now here are some things I would like to do with Shakespeare.

n  Find great works of art that represent my experience with each play/work we read

n  View multiple (at least 3) performances of one of the plays we read

n  Memorize one of the sonnets

n  Create my own piece of artwork based on one of the works we read

n  Discuss what I’m learning in person with someone else for each work we read

I am really excited to find new and interesting ways to meet all the learning outcomes for this class, both from trial and error, and from seeing what the other students are doing to meet them; I'm excited to see what new possibilities will open up as I become my own teacher. I'm looking forward to discovering Shakespeare for myself.

A Little Bit About Me

My name is Brooke Knutson and I am an English geek. More specifically, a creative writing junkie. I love literature and stories and poetry; I love looking for deep meanings in things that were probably never meant to be deep, and I love it when I find depth there. I also happen to love drawing, painting and singing. I love colors, and sunsets, and butterfly wings. I love learning more about the world and about myself, and I am excited to see what new discoveries this semester will bring. J