The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606

This year marks the 400^th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare. While Great Britain, never a slouch in the “can we find some anniversary celebration to draw tourists” department, has all kinds of recognitions and celebrations underway in Stratford-on-Avon as well as the rest of the country, the United States is mounting its own extensive series of Shakespeare festivities.

And the bard would likely smile to know he’s become a hashtag on Twitter: #Shakespeare400.

“@RomeoMontague: Hark! What tweet through yon window breaks? It is the moon, and @JulietCapulet is the sun. #Shakespeare400”

And the books. And calendars. And desk diaries. For those of us who might have been worried about the demise of Shakespeare in high school and college English curriculums, a simple search on Amazon for “Shakespeare 2016” is reassuring.

One of the best recently published books on Shakespeare has less to do with the quadricentennial celebration and more to do with what happened a little less than 400 years ago – 1606 to be precise. The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606 by James Shapiro, the Larry Miller Professor of English at Columbia University, is a wonder of re-creation of that year in Shakespeare life.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

The corn came marching

He knew that things were well

he knew that things were good

until the corn came marching

out from Birnam Wood

The wanderer had plainly told him

all life would be well and good

unless the corn came marching

out from Birnam Wood

He stole his brother’s farm

he stole his father’s food

and still no corn came marching

out from Birnam Wood.

He turned widows out from houses

and orphans from their rooms

and laughed at the corn not marching

out from Birnam Wood.

Interest he squeezed and loans he sucked

from neighbors until they cried;

the corn did not come marching

out from Birnam Wood.

How long, O Lord, how long,

Have these evils you withstood?

And still no corn came marching

Out from Birnam Wood.

The more he controlled, the more he gained

and taken more he would,

until the day the wanderer came

in a bus out of Birnam wood.

And he saw, at last, corn marching,

corn marching to where he stood.

In rows the corn came marching

out from Birnam Wood.

Tweetspeak Poetry has a poetry and photo prompt based on the picture above. Actually, there is a choice of prompts. Visit the site and see what you might do.

Photograph by Robb North, Creative Commons, via Flickr.