[Curtis Gale Weeks]

I like that, Orwn.

The only thing I don't quite get is "A more," and I wonder if a) "A" is supposed to be a shortened form of "and" or that typical Shakespearean "he" or b) it's a type of abbreviated Elizabethan closing for letters...

"Haven't you?" seems an aside to Hamlet standing by; but if this is a letter, that wouldn't seem right unless Horatio is speaking the letter as he writes it for Hamlet and stops to check....If so, I wonder if it should be in parentheses. But if "A more" is a closing, then why would it be signed "Horatio?" (I've thought that maybe Horatio is saying all of the above for himself, not for Hamlet, though...)

"A more, Horatio" might be Hamlet's response to Horatio's question "Haven't you?"

Those are my only stumbling blocks.

The title is very funny but diminishes the poem a little.

[Janice D. Soderling]

Sneaking into the enemy camp and hoping no one notices.

Isn't "a more" really "amore" = love? And isn't this a pun on the infinite monkey theorem.

The infinite monkey theorem states that a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type a given text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare.

It is clever, Walter, you are a fiendishly clever young man.

But poetry, it ain't.

[Curtis Gale Weeks]

Originally Posted by Janice D. Soderling

Isn't "a more" really "amore" = love?

Ah, I hadn't considered that.

After leaving my comment, I started wondering if this was merely a conversation between Ophelia and Horatio, and the section merely a way of saying that Hamlet dreamt more of Horatio than Ophelia has:

THere are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
than are dreamt of in you.r philosophy.
There are more things in Heaven' and earth, Horatio,
than are dreamt of in you?r philosophy

There Are more, things in heaven and earth, Horatio
than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Ophelia: He dreamt of you.
Horatio: Haven't you?
Ophelia: A more, Horatio. ["He more, Horatio."]

—going by the frequency of "a" in Elizabethan speech, and in Shakespeare's plays, to mean "he."

But knowing where/whether the speaker switches from Horatio to Ophelia would be hard in this case.

[Janice D. Soderling]

And part of Walter's cleverness.

[Astrid Pepler]

The Poet

In the third act,
a recital of a dream,
struk by its beauty
a cobbler poet
finds the song
in a meadow
between F and Nuremberg.

It begins as specticle,
poetry, or music
monstrously sung
and condemned him
as love had prompted.
The old poet discourses,
the guild of mastersingers.


[Original: A Book of Operas by Henry Edward Kreehbiel]
http://erasures.wavepoetry.com/erasures.php?sourceid=11

[John Whitworth]

Of course it's poetry. If he says it is I trust him. And, Astrid, yours is poetry too.

[Steve Bucknell]

Astrid,

I like the idea of a "cobbler poet"; who would that be? The odd, missing 'c' in "struk" and the odd, appearing 'i' in "specticle" add to the comic confusion. "The Poet" puts me in mind of many of us here on the Sphere. I think you could tighten the ending by erasing that last line.

Steve.

[Janice D. Soderling]

John, you might also enjoy this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOCFN...Hbd ZNuNTXEmv

I do, somewhat more than erasure poetry.

I am sneaking out of the camp and back to my base, now. Enjoy.

[Brian Allgar]

"The infinite monkey theorem states that a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type a given text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare."

Actually, Janice, I am more convinced by the alternative "infinite Shakespeare" theorem which states that:

"William Shakespeare, hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time, will almost surely type the complete works of a monkey."

[Janice D. Soderling]

And Brian spoke forth with winged words, and his words flew.

(Ah, I wish I had thought of that, but how fortunate that you did.)