On the 400th Anniversary of Shakespeare’s Death

William Shakespeare is believed to have died on April 23, 1616. Post your commemorative poems in the comments section or email to submissions@classicalpoets.org.

Remembering Shakespeare

By Dusty Grein

The Bard of Avon gave us many gifts.
An actor, true, but he was so much more;
A poet of renown and dramatist,
He bestowed plays and sonnets by the score.

A poet’s heart inside his soul did burn
In words of iambs, five across in verse.
Both comedies and tragedies in turn,
He penned, great works that actors still rehearse.

William Shakespeare has now become a name
That’s taught in school, along with all his rhymes.
His writing has become his claim to fame.
Four hundred years–it’s stood the test of time.

Around the world we keep his memory,
Immortal now, “To be or not to be.”

 

A 52 year old grandfather, Dusty has just recently become a professional author. He lives in Newberg, Oregon, where a dog named Naked, and his youngest daughter Jazzmyn keep him busy.

 
 

By Wilude Scabere

Shall I compare his language to a grave?
It is more lively and more flowery.
His rough-shook words refuse to be death’s slave.
No tomb’s as showy or so showery.
A sepulchre, though hard as rock, erodes,
and shrines do often lose their lustre’s prime,
while monuments, though nice, make poor abodes,
and sadly catacombs decay in time.
But Shakespeare’s language will not go away.
Unceasingly, his lines play in the mind.
They pop up even on a summer’s day.
Unlike a crypt, they will not stay behind.
Alas, poor Oracle, his song goes on,
despite all efforts of oblivion.