Monday, July 27, 2020

The Bard

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
As You Like It, William Shakespeare 

  My little place on "the stage" at this moment took me on a sunrise hike to the cemetery. Several broods of ducks, teal, mallards, wood ducks, paddled away as we walked by. A cormorant fixed me with a suspicious eye, swimming a few yard out in the water ready to slip quietly beneath the surface if I threatened. A turtle poked his snout above the water, perhaps the one I lifted off the road yesterday so it wouldn't be smashed under a tire.  A muskrat left a little V wake as it swam with just its nose above the surface. We startled a deer visiting the graves in the cemetery...one look at Trygve and he bounded out past the evergreens that ring the sacred ground. Walking always seem best in the early morning.

Takk for alt

Al
Sunrise at the cemetery.

No comments: