Hamlet, Act I, Scene I [Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes]
by William Shakespeare
Marcellus to Horatio and Bernardo, after seeing the Ghost,
Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
This bird of dawning singeth all night long;
And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad,
The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.
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About the Poem: Yesterday, driving home in the snow from Stevens Point, I was listening to Stuff You Missed In History Class, and it was the "Mysterious Death of Christopher Marlowe" episode...
... yes, that's really what I listened to...
... and then last night, when Sweetie and I took Mr F and Mr Bunches for a ride after they helped me shovel the driveway, I'd commented that I didn't feel all that Christmas-y yet -- not that I was down or sad but that I just didn't feel like it was really Christmastime, even though we're only two weeks from Christmas Eve and I've gone shopping and have been posting the best Christmas songs and all.
So today, I went searching for a Christmas poem other than "A Visit From St. Nicholas," and the first one I found was this excerpt from Hamlet, which completely fails to have what we think of as the Christmas spirit, despite in fact having a Christmas spirit, if I'm reading it correctly. (And I'm not sure I am because I faked my way through Hamlet in AP English in high school.) A Christmas poem about some guys seeing a ghost and hoping that the Christmas season will protect them from such harms as ghosts might cause seemed to me to be interesting enough to post here -- and the exact opposite of what has become one of the main themes of Christmas since Dickens, the idea that ghosts are abroad and can help us at Christmas.
Food for thought.
About the Hot Actress: Zooey Deschanel is not only Christmas-y -she's in Elf, but she also just turned 30 this year, and also serves as food for though: someone who wrote to the editor in Entertainment Weekly suggested she be cast as Wonder Woman, which made me think: Who has the time to write to Entertainment Weekly to make casting suggestions for movies that don't exist yet?
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