The Lyricism of “Hamlet”

2/27/2011

Recently, I had to read Hamlet to help a student I tutor. It was great reading it again after all these years. It’s my favorite Shakespeare play and one of my favorite literary works of all time. There are so many beautiful passages. Here is just one…

But first, let me set it up for you. Hamlet has just been visited by a spirit claiming to be the ghost of his murdered father. Before leaving, the ghost commands Hamlet to remember him. Alone now, Hamlet proclaims:

Remember thee!
Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat
In this distracted globe. Remember thee!
Yea, from the table of my memory
I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records,
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,
That youth and observation copied there;
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain,
Unmix’d with baser matter.

2 Comments

Suzanne link

2/26/2011 08:40:56 pm

Great post. You are making me also want to revisit Shakespeare. I remember studying his works at the same time that I began my visual art studies, and how his writings impacted my functioning as an artist in a visceral way - regardless of the specific subject matter I'd be working with.

Dana Crum

2/27/2011 03:55:13 am

Hey, Suzanne! Thanks for commenting! If you do revisit Shakespeare, “Hamlet” is a great place to start. For me, his greatest plays were “Hamlet,” “Macbeth,” “King Lear” and “Othello” (in that order, though some will disagree about the order and the four I chose). Interestingly, my top four are all tragedies. That may say something about my temperament.

“Richard II” is an underrated early play; I’ve always liked it, but it’s not one of his best. “Henry IV, Part 1” is delightful. My list is not an exhaustive list of Shakespeare’s crème de la crème, but I stand by my first point, about the four tragedies I mentioned being his four best plays overall.

By the way, I like your point about how Shakespeare’s plays affected your functioning as a visual artist. I’m fascinated by how an artist working in one field (say, poetry) can be affected by, and even inspired by, art in other fields (say, visual art or music).

The Lyricism of “Hamlet”

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