Half of what he said meant something else,

and the other half didn’t mean anything at all.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead – Tom Stoppard  

 

 

Without sufficient light context or contrast

it is impossible to tell a hawk from a handsaw[1]

regardless of wind direction.

 

Making up through obscurity

for a lack in both brevity & soulful wit

risks discrete rejection.

 

If you sing snatches of old songs they may

bring a smile but who will consider them

when there’s no connection?

 

Words   words   words   to catch the conscience

of the king must reverberate with significance

to bring introspection.

 

There are more things than dreamed in earth

& heaven but if the poet provides no handle

the meaning will escape detection.

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Citation Information

D.S. Martin, “A Poemm Emerging from an Epigraph Concerning Hamlet’s Indirection,” An Unexpected Journal: Shakespeare & Cultural Apologetics 5, no. 4. (Advent 2022), 184.


Endnotes

[1]A hawk (of course) is a tool used by a plasterer, & a handsaw is a hernshaw (that is a heron) which means that Hamlet is no fool & knows a bird from a tool.

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