Will Shakespeare, if you'll kindly bear this fool ...

When I went to college, an English major meant English Literature. While I took six credits in American Literature, the greatest concentration of courses was in the literature of England. Over the years after graduation from college, and through all the years I have taught, my love of English literature has broadened and deepened. When you first take these courses, your exposure to the area is like taking a "tour" of a European country, spending a day or two in each of the major cities; and, sometimes, covering two or three smaller ones in one day. You get a taste of the country as a whole, but the "whole" sometimes seems like a blur. However, as the years pass, and you have to teach this literature, you begin to look deeper, becoming acquainted with each of the authors in time, and your appreciation of their genius and the beauty of their writing deepens with this appreciation.

Shakespeare is one of the authors that I have come back to, again and again, as I taught one play, then another, one sonnet after another. And, particularly with Shakespeare's sonnets, I began not only to hear what he was saying more clearly, but the particular vehicle he used to present his observations of human behavior became a fascination of mine. His sonnet form appealed to me, not just for the logic of its construction, but also for the music in its flow. And I began to write sonnets in his format until the format became a vehicle of my own ideas and observations. I have written over twenty of them, so far.

So I dedicate this sonnet to the Bard of Avon as a thank you for helping me to give voice to my own thoughts.


Sonnet 6
Christopher Bogart

Will Shakespeare, if you’ll kindly bear this fool
His vain attempts at mimicking your art,
He’ll promise to respect your sacred rule
And speak the speech you gave him from his heart.
No pointless prating from this errant knave
Will find its way into your hallowed song.
No fitful follies or distempered staves
Will lead lean-witted louts to linger long.
Base motives will not tempt him in this game.
No honey-tongued verses will he write
To seek transparent gain or fickle fame.
He’ll use words to illuminate – not light.
For you, Great Bard, could not have marked me more
Had you left your repose on Avon’s shores.