Two Williams

I was reading through a blog and in it saw this video.

Sonnet 29

When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,

I all alone beweep my outcast state

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries

And look upon myself and curse my fate,

Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,

Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,

Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,

With what I most enjoy contented least;

Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,

Haply I think on thee, and then my state,

Like to the lark at break of day arising

From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;

For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings

That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

The man was supposedly one of the "more recent onscreen Mr. Darcys". He reads with such emotion, and the sigh he lets out when he says "Haply I think on thee..." just makes the whole thing better.  Now I remember why I was a Shakespeare fan back in high school.

This next one isn't a poem by Shakespeare, but I remember reading it in college and laughing. It's "This Is Just To Say" by William Carlos Williams.

This Is Just To Say

by William Carlos Williams

I have eaten

the plums

that were in

the icebox

and which

you were probably

saving

for breakfast

Forgive me

they were delicious

so sweet

and so cold

It's so affectionate, and at the same time--hmm, what's the word?--it's needling.

I don't want to analyze them too much. My professors in Comparative Literature TRIED to train us really hard that I spontaneously nitpick at whatever it is I'm reading at the moment. It's a bit tiring.