Hamlet, Act I, Scene I (William Shakespeare)

This bit from William Shakespeare's Hamlet is listed as a poem on poets.org. I do wonder why these seven lines constitute a poem, when the whole thing is a play and not considered a long poem done in parts.

Oh well. Of course, it's quality - it's Shakespeare! The language is dynamic, the philosophy is sound, the mood eerie. It's probably used by the site as a Halloween poem - the ghouls, the dark evening hour!!

Still a little peeved that they call this isolated tidbit a poem by itself. I mean, yes, of course it is, but so are the lines before and after it.

Favorite line: "This bird of dawning"

This bird of dawning

All the world's a stage (William Shakespeare)

I can't remember if I have seen Shakespeare's play, "As You Like It," but I definitely know this piece from it. I mean, who doesn't? It's part of cannon, poetry cannon, sure, but also just the general lit cannon.

I think the reason it's so well known is because it, like many older poems, contains a world view and synthesizes everything and everybody everywhere. Don't ask me how many iterations of world-wide truths can be written, but I kind of wonder if there is a limit to these types of topics and that's why poetry has turned from these broad, all-encompassing views to the narrow, I-format of modern poetry.

That said, cannon is cannon for a reason. Cannon exists because things ring true for people everywhere. So Will S. was brilliant, a keen observer ("second childishness and mere oblivion"), and lucky to have lived and been writing at the right time for his poetry.