It's William Shakespeare's accepted birth date today; so here's a sonnet from the master. I don't have the brain power to write a full post on Shakespeare today, but you can get more than your money's worth by going on over to the Sheila Variations to read her incredibly detailed examination of Shakespeare's first folio and of others' statements about good old Will.
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.
Shakespeare
Sometimes posting a poem is enough. And this is one of my favorite of Shakespeare's sonnets. I love the message to remember what you have rather than agonizing over what you don't have. I also love the irony. Because he set it all down in lasting words--- he's in the end more famous than those who seemed to have more. What a guy!
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