Please excuse me as I did not place italics over the names of titles of plays or underline the names of books. lol.
I agree whoever said Romeo and Juliet wasn't Shakespeare's greatest work. It is far from it. In fact, that play isn't even considered in his best top 4 tragedies. King Lear is considered his greatest accomplishment and Hamlet is considered his greatest work. I am more for Shakespeare's tragedies as I adore Hamlet and King Lear and I so admire Iago from Othello. I am also crazy about Macbeth (especially Lady Macbeth - what an interesting character). The only comedies I have been exposed to in the past are Love's Labours Lost and A Midsummer Night's Dream. I personally Loved Love's Labours Lost but did think Shakespeare really expressed and showed off his language skills lol. It takes a lot to read. He uses words that have still to be understood, so when reading that play, you cannot expect to translate half of it. lol. I HATED A Midsummer Night's Dream. Not so much the plot, the plot was cool...but if I were Shakespeare, I would be embarrassed to put my name to it! I think it is one of his worst works.
I am currently reading The Merchant of Venice and so far I love it. I have not determined yet which character I admire most (as I do with most of his plays lol) but I will find out shortly, lol.
On another topic, I am about 99% positive most of you have never read a poem like this before:
Joy Sonnet in a Random Universe
Helen Chasin
Sometimes I'm happy: la la la la la la la
la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la
la la la la. Tum tum ti tum. La la la la la
la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la.
Hey nonny nonny. La la la la la la la la
la la la la la la la la la la la. Vo do di o do.
Poo poo pi doo. la la la la la la la la la la
la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la
la la. Whack a do. La la la la la la la la. Sh-
boom, sh-boom. La la la la la la la la la la
la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la
la la. Dum di dum. La la la la la la la la.
la la la la la la la la. Tra la la. Tra la la
la la la la la la la la la la. Yeah yeah yeah.
That poem is studied in some colleges. Thinking about Ogden Nash and how a lot of you say he is a horrible writer, perhaps it is just strung in your minds that poetry has to be written in some other language. Poetry is poetry and every writter has a different style. Those poems by Ogden Nash are short and easy to translate...man, they MUST be horrible poems!!
Just because something is easy to understand doesn't make it bad writing. I personally am not fond of Ogden Nash, but that is because I don't gain much from his poetry. Others may, but I don't because his poetry isn't what I enjoy reading.
Have any of you guys read Sophocles? Heh, post back here after you read Oedipus Rex and then we can discuss the Oedipus complex...I bet most of you would go ew...that is nasty why would anyone ever think of writing something like that!? Then, like any piece of writing, you must take into consideration the time in which it was written. Most people today will take more interest in modern literature as it is more relative. Heh...I would take a guess at how many people can relate to Oedipus and my number would be low. But it's a a great piece of literature that expresses some things that modern cannot.
History and Literature run hand in hand and often times, it's really cool to read something that was written a long time ago. In order for me to understand and enjoy modern literature, I like to read the works of years ago.
Looking at other playwrites during Shakespeare's times, I often wonder how Shakespeare got himself a class in high schools and colleges everywhere...If Shakespeare didn't totally hack the structure of a play, we might not be studying him today. Heck, we could have a class on Christopher Marlow! lol. How many of you guys have read Dr. Faustus?
Dante is another great writer who wrote The Divine Comedy and presented the nine levels of hell.
Modern literature mirrors that of classic literature. You can't have one without the other.
