Poetry Friday: Shakespeare to Seoul
Friday, October 17th, 2008My husband happens to be in Seoul, South Korea at the moment. I took him to the airport Wednesday morning, and he’ll get back on Monday afternoon. It’s not that long to be apart, especially for us – he’s a theatrical set designer, and frequently travels for weeks at a time for his design gigs. But it is definitely the farthest apart geographically that we have ever been – even before we knew each other. So I’m feeling a little sentimental, and wanted to choose something with him in mind. Here’s Sonnet XCVII from the patron saint of all thespians, William Shakespeare:
How like a winter hath my absence been
From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!
What old December’s bareness everywhere!
And yet this time remov’d was summer’s time,
The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,
Bearing the wanton burthen of the prime,
Like widow’d wombs after their lords’ decease:
Yet this abundant issue seem’d to me
But hope of orphans and unfather’d fruit;
For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,
And thou away, the very birds are mute;
Or if they sing, ’tis with so dull a cheer
That leaves look pale, dreading the winter’s near.
My ol’ pal Becky at Becky’s Book Reviews (who has the most beautiful header in all of book-blogdom) is handling the Poetry Friday round-up this week. Do pay her a visit, won’t you?