Elegy of Fortinbras
To C. M.
Now that we’re alone we can talk prince man to man
though you lie on the stairs and see more than a dead ant
nothing but black sun with broken rays
I could never think of your hands without smiling
and now that they lie on the stone like fallen nests
they are as defenceless as before The end is exactly this
The hands lie apart The sword lies apart The head apart
and the knight’s feet in soft slippers
You will have a soldier’s funeral without having been a soldier
they only ritual I am acquainted with a little
There will be no candles no singing only cannon-fuses and bursts
crepe dragged on the pavement helmets boots artillery horses drums
drums I know nothing exquisite
those will be my manoeuvres before I start to rule
one has to take the city by the neck and shake it a bit
Anyhow you had to perish Hamlet you were not for life
you believed in crystal notions not in human clay
always twitching as if asleep you hunted chimeras
wolfishly you crunched the air only to vomit
you knew no human thing you did not know even how to breathe
Now you have peace Hamlet you accomplished what you had to
and you have peace The rest is not silence but belongs to me
you chose the easier part an elegant thrust
but what is heroic death compared with eternal watching
with a cold apple in one’s hand on a narrow chair
with a view on the ant-ill and clock’ dial
Adieu prince I have tasks a sewer project
and a decree on prostitutes and beggars
I must also elaborate a better system of prisons
since as you justly said Denmark is a prison
I go to my affairs This night is born
a star named Hamlet We shall never meet
what I shall leave will not be worth a tragedy
It is not for us to greet each other or bid farewell we live on archipelagos
and that water these words what can they do what can they do prince
poem by Zbigniew Herbert
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Related quotes
The Hamlet's Departure
'Respiré de ese humo amargo de tu adiòs
Y desde que tù te fuiste yo solo tengo...'.
Mom is always mom. Oedipus started without knowing it.
A murder was on a sunny clobbed paving among olive trees.
An incest was among the walls of dark ash-lar in an old palace.
And the deserted child got lost in the old world
Thinking he had found the new world.
On the ramparts of the castle, in his prince clothes, Hamlet meets his father's ghost.]
The wind blows upon the poor prince of Denmark
Who won't kill his stepfather but all the others.
Hamlet, you couldn't return
Now you can only go away.
*
The quotation is from the lyric 'Camisa Negra'.
poem by Paolo Giuseppe Mazzarello
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Prince Of Orange
Look at these hands
Spokes of the sun God delay you, spray you
Prince of orange, climb the ladder
Prince of orange will die.
Brass robinettes
Trumpet and drums for the taking, baking
Prince of orange, climb the ladder
Prince of orange will die.
All the food he steals is all right
Far the tall and gentle poplar
Causing fanfare to those listening
Now
Drape round your head
Mischief and secrets in green kelt, all hell
Prince of orange, climb the ladder
Prince of orange will die.
Look at these lands (--- --- ---)
Youll get no books for your dinner
Sinner
Prince of orange, climb the ladder
Prince of orange will die
song performed by by Xtc
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Queen Gertrude: O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.
Hamlet: Oh, throw away the worser part of it,
And live the purer with the other half.
line from Hamlet by William Shakespeare (1599)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Hamlet: Hic et ubique? then we'll shift our ground. Come hither, gentlemen, and lay your hands again upon my sword. Never to speak of this that you have heard, swear by my sword.
line from Hamlet, Act I, Scene 5 by William Shakespeare (1599)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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A final house stands at this hamlet's site (In diesem Dorfe steht das letzte Haus)
A final house stands at this hamlet's site,
as lonesome as the final house on earth.
The road, unhindered by the hamlet's girth
keeps walking slowly out into the night.
The hamlet is but a transition side
of two expanses, anxious, terrified;
its walk along the houses mere relay.
And those that leave the hamlet wander wide
and many die perhaps along the way.
poem by Rainer Maria Rilke (19 September 1901), translated by Walter Aue
Submitted by anonym
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Polonius: My honourable Lord, I will most humbly take my leave of you.
Hamlet: You cannot, Sir, take from me any thing that I will more willingly part withal, except my life, my life.
line from Hamlet, Act II, Scene 2 by William Shakespeare (1599)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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So You Want To Be A Soldier
So you want to be a soldier
And learn those fighting moves;
Be a member of a team
In the soldier's school.
So you want to be a soldier
And go far from your home,
And learn there how to be a man
As you fight and roam.
So you want to be a soldier
And hold your buddy's hand,
As they breathe their final,
There on some mortal sand.
So you want to be a soldier
And call the road your bed,
And never know just when or how
You'll lay down your tired head.
So you want to be a soldier
Be buried in some plot-
Maybe far from your hometown,
After you have fought.
So you want to be a soldier-
Well there's no finer choice,
Than giving so unselfishly
To freedoms song, your voice.
You want to be a soldier;
And you could do much worse;
And choose the cowards way to go
And walk, behind the hearse.
But your name they'll remember,
As they speak of you with awe;
And wonder at your bravery,
And wonder what you saw.
Many men will shake your hand
And thank you for their freedom,
They'll say it is a gift from god
That you are still breathing.
You'll live more than other men-
And suffer much more too,
But in the end, you'll count it as
The best thing you could do.
And the biggest thank you,
That you will ever receive,
Is in the eyes of loved ones-
When you're back home again.
So if you know an older soldier,
Please shake his hand today
And tell him that you're grateful
He chose the soldier's way.
poem by Patti Masterman
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Just A Girl In Disguise
Im a ordinary girl in disgise
I jus need to find my prince,
the one to sweep me off my feet,
My one and only,
Ohh dear prince where are you
I got to find ya,
Im jus a broken hearted girl in disgise
Ohh prince please come and find me,
I need to be understood,
ohh prince please come and find me
I need to feel loved,
Oh prince come to me,
Please come to me,
I need a man to show he isnt afraid
I need a man to show he isnt a jerk,
I need a man to show me he is unlike all the rest,
I need a man to prove to me he will be my one and only,
I need a prince to show to me he is my prince forever
Cuz I'm jus a ordinary, broken hearted,
sensitive girl waiting for good to happen,
and to come my way,
So please god bring him to me,
Bring the one Im dieing to meet,
Bring him to love and to hold me,
Bring the one I will be with forever,
Let me come out of the disguise,
Let me have a smile that isnt fake,
Let me have a heart that isnt broken,
Let me have a life that isnt shattered,
Let me live the rest of my life happy and with him.
poem by Jade Smith
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Amen
He walked like a prince
though a pauper he was born.
He looked like a prince
on each and every morn.
His eyes, they were dazzling
and shining like a crown.
His friends that were paupers
followed him around.
Worship was given him.
They bowed at his feet.
He told them to rise
and stand up to greet
the sun in the sky
that shone for them as well.
and never to be afraid
for that's a living hell.
He talked like a prince
and his words traveled far.
He spoke of the thing that
we're all made of.
He spoke of the wonders
of the creation of love.
And those that believed
were never the same.
They became princes just like He
and the paupers were filled with serenity.
Some got lost along the way
and forgot about the sun shining every day.
They fell by the wayside
and darkness stepped in,
followed by greed and the treachery of sin.
Still the prince became a KING.
poem by Edwina Reizer
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Hamlet: Why, then, 'tis none to you, for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison.
Rosencrantz: Why then, your ambition makes it one. 'Tis too narrow for your mind.
line from Hamlet, Act II, Scene 2 by William Shakespeare (1599)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Horatio: Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince:
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!
line from Hamlet, Act V, Scene 2 by William Shakespeare (1599)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Deaf Gunpowder
Come on soldier.
Soldier?
Get off of your battlefield
Let me take you to a place
Where your weapons are sealed.
Come on soldier.
Soldier?
Look me in the eye
Your heart hasn’t chosen to be here
Then why are you here?
Ask yourself why.
Come on soldier.
Soldier?
It’s time to breathe
It’s time to stop fighting for your life,
For something you don’t believe.
Hey soldier?
Soldier?
I do understand
It wasn’t your choice to be here
But you chose not to fight for that;
You chose to fight for someone else.
That is why in life you were not alive
But when you died,
That was when you started to breathe.
Hey soldier?
Soldier?
I know you cannot hear
Because you strived
You are alive
To you death will never come near.
poem by Mehreen Mujeeb
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Hamlet is a remarkably easy role. Physically it's hard because it tends to be about three hours long and you're talking the whole time. But it's a simple role and it adapts itself very well, because the thing about Hamlet is, we all are Hamlet.
quote by Liev Schreiber
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Hamlet: The rest is silence.
line from Hamlet, Act V, Scene 2 by William Shakespeare (1599)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Hamlet: The phrase would be more german to the matter, if we could carry cannon by our sides.
line from Hamlet, Act V, Scene 2, script by William Shakespeare (1599)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Hamlet: Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away.
O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe,
Should patch a wall to expel the winter flaw!
line from Hamlet, Act V, Scene 1 by William Shakespeare (1599)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Hamlet: If it assume my noble father's person, I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape and bid me hold my peace.
line from Hamlet by William Shakespeare (1599)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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King Claudius: How fares our cousin Hamlet?
Hamlet: Excellent, i' faith, of the chameleon's dish. I eat the air, promise-crammed. You cannot feed capons so.
line from Hamlet, Act III, Scene 2 by William Shakespeare (1599)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Fortinbras: Let four captains bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage; for he was likely, had he been put on, to have proved most royally: and, for his passage, the soldiers' music and the rites of war speak loudly for him. Take up the bodies: such a sight as this becomes the field, but here shows much amiss. Go, bid the soldiers shoot.
line from Hamlet, Act V, Scene 2 by William Shakespeare (1599)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Drama's Vitallest Expression is the Common Day
741
Drama's Vitallest Expression is the Common Day
That arise and set about Us—
Other Tragedy
Perish in the Recitation—
This—the best enact
When the Audience is scattered
And the Boxes shut—
"Hamlet" to Himself were Hamlet—
Had not Shakespeare wrote—
Though the "Romeo" left no Record
Of his Juliet,
It were infinite enacted
In the Human Heart—
Only Theatre recorded
Owner cannot shut—
poem by Emily Dickinson
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