Wit: The Greatest Weapon or Biggest Weakness?

From the beginning of this scene, a reader is exposed to the already rapid development of Hamlet. In some essence, Hamlet has, in fact, fallen victim to a “witchcraft of wit”(a quality the ghost uses to describe Claudius) which he is able to utilize to persuade Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that he is in fact crazy as Polonius, Claudius, and Gertrude hypothesize. What I find most intriguing, however, is that Hamlet’s wit is his greatest power and his greatest weakness. For example, on page 103, lines 330 to 334, Hamlet attempts to convince Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that he is depressed. Nevertheless, Hamlet describes his depression by proclaiming the numerous beauties of nature and then stating that he no longer has the ability to appreciate them; where as, an actually depressed person would no longer be able to see the beauty in anything. Whether the characters catch it or not, Hamlet is undoubtably a genius when it comes to manipulation and ‘pretending to be crazy’. Nonetheless, by the end of the scene, Hamlet drafts an incredulous plan to decide the fate of Claudius through his expression to “The Murder of Gonzago” and one begins to see that Hamlet’s “witchcraft of wit” may be taking over him enough to actually drive himself insane. The question remains, however, whether or not Hamlet, as an avenger, is any better than Claudius, the murder.

-Taylor Pearson

Scheherazade By Richard Siken

Scheherazade

 

Initially Scheherazade appeared to be the most ridiculously confusing poem that I had ever read. However, after I listened to the complex background story from Richard Siken himself, I was intrigued and fell in love with the poem. In the story Scheherazade is the daughter of the executioner. An ambitious king employs the executioner by deciding to marry a woman everyday and the following morning he beheads her so that he can marry another woman by the afternoon. This king’s life is encompassed by selfishness and faulty physical love. One day Scheherazade went to her father and asked him to set her up with the king. The next day, she was married to the king. However, when the king took her back to his master bedroom to take advantage of her, she struck a deal. She said that if she told him an amazing story, he would have to let her live. The king then responded that he would let her live for that night. After hearing the story, the king loved it enough to allow her to live another day. To everyone’s surprise, the king would hold Scheherazade at the point of death for a story every night but at the same time he would also be begging her for a story. Days turned into weeks and the king and Scheherazade fell in love, living happily ever after.

Siken certainly had a lot to live up to with his fourteen-line poem. Although this fourteen-line masterpiece is not a sonnet, Siken did succeed in conveying a message of a timeless tale of love. Beginning with an apostrophe, Siken poses as the king who is asking his lover to tell him multiple different stories about when they pulled bodies out of the lake, horses ran until they forgot they were horses, and rolled up in the carpet so they could dance.  Each aspect of the different dreams referred to an aspect of the color red and are all tied together by the aspect of the sliced apple. In turn, the apple refers to Adam and Eve and represents knowledge, temptation, and sin. In the end, the story has a happy ending but because every day begins like it is the first day of marriage, every story and every moment is a matter of life or death.

 

Dirty Valentine By Taylor Pearson

Dirty Valentine

 

There are so many things I’m not allowed to tell you,

Mother. You just don’t get it, my “boo”,

My love, my heart, what defines the entirety

Of my five long devoted years.

I cut each piece, licked it, felt it,

I put my love into it and I got nothing in return.

I marched on up and broke him the news

That his socks may be rocked off

If he took a peak inside of my little disaster.

Impatient, he took a look and whatever he saw

Was too much to bear. He swallowed my heart

And spat it back out. He swallowed my heart and

He threw it in the mud and said I had cooties.

Dirty, rotten valentine. Boys certainly are stupid.

Saying Your Name By Taylor Pearson

 

Saying Your Name

 

Names called out down the hall,

Down the stairs, and through your wooden door

Which you keep cracked along with

The closet, in defense against monsters.

You scream in your unconsciousness

Because you’re trapped in a fantasy.

But the darkness is your ally

Because the world we are in is much scarier.

Every once and a while I put

The monsters in their place

Because I am your hero in the night

And in the day. Saying your name gives me

A freight, nonetheless, especially when you

Do not answer because, little brother,

I am your protector.