Anthony and Cleopatra
A wrinkle poked his sodding alchemy
Bereft of reason and the truth of ships
But nothing pirouettes in blank sausages
As Antony kisses Cleopatra on the lips.
They went out late last night, clubbing in Alexandria
And Cleopatra was wearing her fishnet tights,
Antony wanted to get her somewhere quiet,
He didn't want to get involved in any fights.
He's got this paranoid fear of Caesar
Because Julius wants to rule the earth,
But perhaps if Cleopatra helps him
He'll show his enemies what he's really worth.
Past ruined palaces of fevered brow
The carved spinach of his twisted dreams
Erupts like ivory in trembling snow
And catches tigers in their early schemes.
poem by John Thorkild Ellison
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Related quotes
Antony: There’s beggary in the love that can be reckon’d.
Cleopatra: I’ll set a bourn how far to be beloved.
line from Antony and Cleopatra, Act I, Scene 1, script by William Shakespeare (1606)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Cleopatra: I have immortal longings in me.
line from Antony and Cleopatra, Act V, Scene 2, script by William Shakespeare (1606)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Charmian: By your most gracious pardon,
I sing but after you.
Cleopatra: My salad days,
When I was green in judgment, cold in blood,
To say as I said then.
line from Antony and Cleopatra, Act I, Scene 5, script by William Shakespeare (1606)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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In praising Antony I have dispraised Caesar.
Cleopatra’s glory
Cleopatra was the queen of Egypt;
Cleopatra was the queen of beauty.
She came to the throne at her eighteen
The first century BC witnessed it.
To get back her Egypt from her brother,
She sought the hand of Julius Caesar,
The mighty one Rome had ever seen,
And set to sell her asset of beauty.
While in exile, she was able to reach
Caesar when he chanced to visit Egypt,
By getting her smuggled in to his room,
Rolled up in a carpet sent as a gift
Cleopatra emerging from the roll,
Caesar was stunned and fell for her in love.
He made her queen of Egypt in no time
And made her his consort with all respects.
Bound by her charm, grace and wit together,
Caesar clued to her and bore her a son.
He brought her home to be adored by Rome.
They led a life, each proud of the other.
The rise of Caesar was the cause of his fall.
His rise in power and love for Egypt
Were good enough for his conspirators
To rise and annihilate him unaware.
Cleopatra with her son fled to Egypt
And Mark Antony succeeded the throne.
No wonder, her beauty arrested him.
No wonder, his valour imprisioned her.
.The Rome emperor and the Egyptian queen
Loved, like of which no pair ever did.
The spring sprang, love spurted, and the passion flowed.
She was all and she was the world for him.
He took to Egypt and slept with the queen.
His rivals from Rome used his weakness
And invaded the Egyptian sea.
War broke; Antony woke and fought but lost.
The majestic queen became the captive.
False news spread that she was killed. Shocked,
Antony killed himself with the sword he wore.
She saught to burry him with state honour.
She heard she would be taken to Rome,
To be chained and drawn in Rome she adorned.
Romans took care that she killed not herself
And so kept her ss safe amidst water.
She had serpents brought in the fruit basket
And had them sting her to join her lover.
She loved Caesar and lived a royal wife.
She loved Antony and lived a loyal wife.
A woman can love as much in succession.
Widowhood is not an impediment
And the land after the harvest is not waste.
Cleopatra is a perfect example.
‘Age cannot wither her, not custom stale
Her infinite variety; other women cloy
The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry
Where most she satisfies.’ Shakespeare
01.04.2008
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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Agrippa: Royal wench!
She made great Caesar lay his sword to bed.
He plowed her, and she cropped.
line from Antony and Cleopatra, Act II, Scene 2, script by William Shakespeare (1606)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Enobarbus: To be furious is to be frighted out of fear.
line from Antony and Cleopatra, Act III, Scene 13, script by William Shakespeare (1606)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Charmian: Tempt him not so too far. I wish, forbear.
In time we hate that which we often fear.
line from Antony and Cleopatra, Act I, Scene 3, script by William Shakespeare (1606)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Shakespeare
Read ‘As you like it’ to enjoy courtships.
‘Romeo and Juliet’ to feel the fire of
love,
‘Mac Beth’ to learn the wreck of volatile
ambition,
‘Othello’ to know the pain of suspicion,
‘Julius Caesar’ to sense the folly of faith,
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ to pulse the
might of lust,
‘Hamlet’ for the havoc of infidelity
And when you complete the Shakes
pears
You will have known that you’d been
Like those characters in different times..
25.04.2003
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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After Her Death I Dreamed Of My Love (Cavatina Sequence)
(After William Shakespeare)
After her death I dreamed of my love,
with eyes sparkling
somewhat divine like the stars that glitter,
somehow existing
in the dark outer space, with her two hands
reaching, touching,
the circumference of this great earth,
with a sash of vast planets in her girth.
White blazing braking thunder was her breath,
her eyes were blue
as the purest kind of cobalt hued sky
her love was true,
even much greater than it was before,
her retinue
were the elements, some power divine
and still she wanted to be only mine.
[Reference: 'Cleopatra's Lament' from 'Antony and Cleopatra, Act V, Scene 2 by William Shakespeare.]
poem by Gert Strydom
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Lepidus: But small to greater matters must give way.
line from Antony and Cleopatra, Act II, Scene 2, script by William Shakespeare (1606)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Cleopatra's Needle
Riding upon a swift cloud,
Is like he who sits above the circles;
Add year to year,
Add a muse to your life;
Like Cleopatra's needle in the bedroom.
Life is like a flying serpent,
To spread it out with a shovel;
Like the bread of adversity with,
The water of affliction around you.
Heaviness and sorrow,
When a thirsty man dreams, what does he see?
Cleopatra's needle with the muse,
The wind blows the snow about;
Drunkenwith it's love is my mind on this muse.
Cleopatra'a needle,
The meek will increase their joy on this earth;
The workman moulds an image,
The goldsmith overlays it with gold;
But the grave cannot thank you for your works.
Cleopatra's needle,
A precious cornerstone is all that i am;
Like a short bed to strechout when, all hope is gone.
The spirit of deep sleep,
Knowledge and discretion to the youth;
Mind you, the world is influenced by demonic spirits.
poem by Edward Kofi Louis
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Enobarbus: Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety.
line from Antony and Cleopatra, Act II, Scene 2, script by William Shakespeare (1606)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Countryman: I know that a woman is a dish for the gods, if the devil dress her not.
line from Antony and Cleopatra, Act V, Scene 2, script by William Shakespeare (1606)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Much awaited
I heard much of Cleopatra.
I read much of Cleopatra,
Read with her lover Mark Antony.
But I never saw her beauty.
What sensation I would’ve got
Had I seen her in bone and flesh,
That sensation came to me hot
When you, Jessiamma, I met.
I wish I saw you a decade
Ago when you’re a young orchard.
Your kindness outlives your beauty.
It is unkind to deride your bounty.
I regard you in high esteem
As in you runs a crystal stream,
Wherein many want to bathe,
That you ward off to keep it clean.
You are gifted with a beauty
That women view as their envy
And men find as their energy.
Thus, your journey is made easy
17.07.2001 Ktm
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The fire.
Passion is fire, it engulfs or dies.
It engulfed Antony and Cleopatra.
It died in us, the two cowards.
21.07.2003
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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The power of lust
If a woman is a Cleopatra
And sets her eyes, any man is Antony
To fall at her, deserting his consort,
Who is virtuous like Octavius though.
03.11.2004
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Enobarbus: I will praise any man that will praise me; though it cannot be denied what I have done by land.
line from Antony and Cleopatra, script by William Shakespeare (1606)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Enobarbus: I will praise any man that will praise me, though it cannot be denied what I have done by land.
line from Antony and Cleopatra, Act II, Scene 6, script by William Shakespeare (1606)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Centerfold
They asked Napoleon Bonaparte
To pose for a girlie magazine,
He said, 'Try Josephine! '
Who answered 'I wouldn't do anything so obscene! '
They said they'd asked Cleopatra,
Who claimed it didn't really matter
But wouldn't they prefer Mark Antony,
He's sure to command a handsome fee?
' Cos you certainly earn a lot of gold
By being a Playboy Centerfold! !
poem by John Thorkild Ellison
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