villainous thoughts
 

I can only spot a reversed opening foot. Not sure it reads comfortably, though.

Meanwhile:


Othello, Act I scene III, Iago: 'Thus do I ever make my fool my purse...' by Kipling

I'll use that bloomin' 'alf-wit to sharpen up my plan.
I wouldn't give 'im time of day, just chattin' man to man,
But 'e can 'elp me dish the Moor, 'oo as the gossip runs
Is at it with my missus like a pair o' gatling guns.

Call it just a barracks rumour, but to me it's all the same.
A man I 'ate I'll 'ate buckshee, regardless of the blame.
Yet a loyal and honest ancient is 'ow 'e thinks of me,
Which makes my scheme as easy as unwinding a puttee.

Now Cassio, 'oo's in my way – 'ow do I topple 'im?
'E scrubs well in uniform, although 'is lights are dim,
The ladies 'ave an eye for 'im, so what if I suggest
That Cassio's the cuckoo in Othello's little nest?

The Moor's still wet be'ind the ears. 'E thinks the best of folk.
You can lead 'im where you want 'im like an 'opeless plodding moke.
So there it is, a strategy straight from the pit of 'ell;
For me it's blissful vengeance, but for 'im it's bliss farewell.

Basil -
Brilliant. You've caught the true Kipling voice, which is so much harder than it seems.

Bazza, you're right. It goes 'Clearly, what's really always BEEN there'. Iago is very nice. He is, after all, an NCO.

[nevermind]

No, bring it back! I loved the punchline!


This Is Just To Say

I have shaken
these butchers'
hands who made
thy wounds

which like
dumb mouths
do ope their
ruby lips

O pardon me
I meant to cry "Havoc!"
and let slip
the dogs of war

(Julius Caesar, Act 3, Scene 1, lines 255-276,
by William Carlos Williams)

Dr. Seuss's Hamlet

Today there's a thing that I'm dying to know,
A question that haunts me wherever I go:
A person's a person, no matter how small,
But is it worth being a person at all?
With all the bad things in the world that I'm seeing,
Would I be better off simply not being?
Maybe. Who knows? Here's the rub: we must dread
That maybe things do not improve once we're dead,
But bad as we find it to be a live person,
After we're dead things decidedly worsen.

So true, Cally! And I've also been enjoying Melissa Balmain's appreciation of John Whitworth (that evil scottish wanker, and as everyone knows, all wankers are scottish and evil) in the latest issue of LIGHT, and there's also a great parody of John's poem, "The Examiners," by J. Patrick Lewis. John's the featured poet, so there are lots of his poems. If you haven't seen it yet, John, it's all wonderful. Congrats!

Bob, do you know there's a movie "Green Eggs and Hamlet"? Made on a shoe-string budget by UCLA students (I think), it's pretty obscure, but it's a real gem. The story's the same, except there's a Sam-I-am character who goes around following Hamlet and offering him green eggs and ham. And the dialog is in the style of Dr. Seuss. If you can get a hold of it, it's worth seeing.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0134697/

Thanks, Marion. I never heard of it. I'll see if I can find it.

Mary, I wish you hadn't mentioned John in LQ. My issue hasn't arrived yet but I didn't know it should have. Now I'm going to be all impatient.

In submitting my Larkin entry with the f-word, should I just type the word or should I type f*ck or what? I don't want to offend Lucy or be filtered out by her spam program.