Posted on by bookhippo

But soft, day 2 arrives #A2ZChallenge

The day is just breaking as I write this, the sun is gentle…still. The breeze still cool and soft, its part-time spring (given how hot the day eventually becomes). So here I am set to write about the next famous line. A2Z has just started, my first post went up yesterday, its still fresh, exciting…much like love? the fatigue and nervousness hasn’t set in yet…so although I had a completely different line to write about today….I can’t but help think about love. So, change of heart….

Romeo & Juliet film

Let’s talk about love! And when its love how can you to not be thinking Romeo and Juliet. The immortal yet doomed love story which has inspired millions of love stories through generations. Romeo and Juliet was one of the most popular plays by Shakespeare and why not? Even after 5 centuries its popularity has hardly waned

Now for people who have read Shakespeare, would know how vivid his writing is. I still recall Ophelia’s death scene in Hamlet, it seemed like the scene was being acted out right in front of my eyes…A similar absolutely evocative scene is the famed balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet

Romeo & Juliet

Act 2 Scene 2

[Juliet appears above at a window.]

But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east and Juliet is the sun!
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief
That thou her maid art far more fair than she.

[what is that light at the window? It is the east and Juliet is the sun. Rise like the sun, beautiful juliet and let the moon, envious of your beauty, set]

Ah! no one has ever described first love ever so eloquently….

then of course Romeo goes on to praise her beauty….

Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
Having some business, do entreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres till they return

[Her eyes are so beautiful that two of the brightest stars in the sky plead with her to shine on their behalf]

and the love confession

With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls
For stony limits cannot hold love out

[When Juliet asks him how did he come here, he says love gave him the wings to jump over the walls… Because stone walls cannot hold out love]

So this A2Z Challenge let B take your Breath Away….

37 Replies to “But soft, day 2 arrives #A2ZChallenge”

  2. Great choice of a quote. I’ve read some Shakespeare, but most of it was a translation: Makbeth in high school, and King Lear in the college. But we also analyzed some of his sonnets – and that was done in English, and attempted a translation of the “Life is just a stage” bit. I got to tell you – for a second language speaker, his use of English is quite challenging.

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  6. Shakespeare is timeless! The sonnets are my favorite, but how can you argue with Romeo & Juliet? In junior high, I asked my crush out while we read the play in class, right after Juliet says “wherefore art thou, Romeo?”

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