Shakespeare Pops Up for National Poetry Month!

"Lord, what fools these mortals be!"

~A Midsummer Night's Dream, William Shakespeare

Even though it's April Fool's Day, I'm not fooling that Pop-up Shakespeare: Every Play and Poem in Pop-up 3D is an amazing feat of literature and paper engineering!

I won my copy on the Teacher Dance blog, courtesy of Candlewick Press. It lives up to its title and subtitle, truly including every. single. play. and. poem! And takes so much less shelf space than my old Riverside Shakespeare!

Reed Martin & Austin Tickenor of The Reduced Shakespeare Company help us understand the whole of Shakespeare with lift-the-flap features and pop-up pages for  Shakespeare's background, the Histories, Tragedies, Comedies, and Poetry. It includes play synopses, quotations, explanations, and humor. The book design itself was engineered by Jennie Maizels.

When you are done reading this side, turn it around and read the back! 

This book makes Shakespeare fun for those who are afraid of him. For those who already love him, this book enriches that love. 

If it's been awhile since you've read any Shakespeare, maybe you should "Brush Up."

And for a more serious look, try this site from The Poetry Foundation. 

Happy National Poetry Month!

Summer Is...

(http://www.keloland.com/weather/)

Summer is hot!

This summer is also dry. How can we have 41% or more humidity and still face drought conditions?

In spite of that, summer is also flowers...

(copyright 2012 Jane Heitman Healy)

and produce...

(photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/krossbow/4896048130/sizes/m/ by F Delventhal)

and Shakespeare in the park...
(and here's Falls Park, the old mill, before the play.)

(copyright 2012, Jane Heitman Healy)

Summer is upcoming concerts in various parks around town....
First up at Music Monday at McKennan Park on July 16 is the Crabgrass Crew.

and vacation...


and, of course, reading!

(photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/brewbooks/2449070766/in/photostream/ by brewbooks) This is someone else's stack, but you can keep track of my current reading by viewing the Shelfari widget on the right side of the screen.

What defines your summer this year? Do post a comment and let me know!

Happy Birthday, Shakespeare!--National Poetry Month

http://www.flickr.com/photos/landhere/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Happy Birthday, William Shakespeare! Much of this English poet/playwright's life is a mystery, but he was supposed to have been born on April 23, 1564. Did he write all the plays attributed to him? Had he traveled widely to set his plays accurately in foreign lands? Did he receive an advanced education or was he a prodigy, writing clever lines in his childhood? Most of that we'll never know. Fortunately, his work remains and is held in high esteem through the centuries.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rappensuncle/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Sonnet 60 gives a mature look at aging:

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end,
Each changing place with that which goes before
In sequent toil all forwards do contend.
Nativity, once in the main of light,
Crawls to maturity, wherewith, being crowned,
Crooked eclipses 'gainst his glory fight
And Time that gave, doth now his gift confound.
Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth,
And delves the parallels in beauty's brow,
Feeds on the rarities of natures truth,
And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow;
And yet, to times, in hope, my verse shall stand,
Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.

Enjoy this student video of Sonnet 116 using Shakespeare's words and a modern twist:


The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, displays manuscripts of Shakespeare's work, holds plays and poetry readings, and performs educational programs.

The Royal Shakespeare Company is building a new theatre in which to perform Shakespeare's plays in his hometown of Stratford-Upon-Avon. London built a replica of The Globe Theatre, where Shakespeare's plays were produced in Elizabethan times. Shakespeare's work is performed, recited, read, studied, and appreciated around the world. Though he died in 1616, his words live on.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cloudsoup/ / CC BY 2.0

SONNET 73
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou seest the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire
Consumed with that which it was nourish'd by.
This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

What are your favorite Shakespeare lines?