Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50) (88 page)

Portia’s ‘Quality of Mercy’ Speech (The Merchant of Venice)

Act IV. Scene I
.

Por.
       
Do you confess the bond?

Ant.
 
I do.

Por.
       
Then must the Jew be merciful.

Shy.
 
On what compulsion must I? tell me that.

Por.
 
The quality of mercy is not strain’d,
  
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It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless’d;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
’Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
  
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His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway,
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
  
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It is an attribute to God himself,
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That in the course of justice none of us
  
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Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy,
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea,
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
  
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Must needs give sentence ‘gainst the merchant there.

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

Jaques’ ‘All the World’s a Stage’ Speech (As You Like It)

Act II. Scene VII.

Jaq.
       
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
  
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His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel,
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
  
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Sighing like furnace, with a woful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
  
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Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lin’d,
With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
  
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Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose well sav’d, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
  
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And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

Puck’s Epilogue (Midsummer Night’s Dream)

Puck.
 
If we shadows have offended,
 
      
Think but this, and all is mended,
 
      
That you have but slumber’d here
 
      
While these visions did appear.
 
      
And this weak and idle theme,
  
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No more yielding but a dream,
 
      
Gentles, do not reprehend:
 
      
If you pardon, we will mend.
 
      
And, as I’m an honest Puck,
 
      
If we have unearned luck
  
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Now to ‘scape the serpent’s tongue,
 
      
We will make amends ere long;
 
      
Else the Puck a liar call:
 
      
So, good night unto you all.
 
      
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
  
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And Robin shall restore amends.
 
[
Exit.

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

Othello’s ‘Put Out the Light’ Speech

Act V. Scene II
.

A Bedchamber in the Castle.
 
DESDEMONA
in bed asleep.
 
A light burning.

Enter
OTHELLO.

Oth.
 
It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul;
Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars!
It is the cause. Yet I’ll not shed her blood,
  
5
Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow,
And smooth as monumental alabaster.
Yet she must die, else she’ll betray more men.
Put out the light, and then put out the light:
If I quench thee, thou flaming minister,
  
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I can again thy former light restore,
Should I repent me; but once put out thy light,
Thou cunning’st pattern of excelling nature,
I know not where is that Promethean heat
That can thy light relume. When I have pluck’d the rose,
  
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I cannot give it vital growth again,
It needs must wither: I’ll smell it on the tree.
 
[
Kisses her.
O balmy breath, that dost almost persuade
Justice to break her sword! One more, one more.
Be thus when thou art dead, and I will kill thee,
  
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And love thee after. One more, and this the last:
So sweet was ne’er so fatal. I must weep,
But they are cruel tears; this sorrow’s heavenly,
It strikes where it doth love. She wakes.

Des.
 
Who’s there? Othello?
  
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Oth.
       
Ay, Desdemona.

Des.
 
Will you come to bed, my lord?

Oth.
 
Have you pray’d to-night, Desdemona?

Des.
       
Ay, my lord.

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

Gaunt’s ‘This England’ Speech (Richard II)

Act II. Scene I
.

Gaunt.
 
Methinks I am a prophet new inspir’d,
And thus expiring do foretell of him:
His rash fierce blaze of riot cannot last,
  
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For violent fires soon burn out themselves;
Small showers last long, but sudden storms are short;
He tires betimes that spurs too fast betimes;
With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder:
Light vanity, insatiate cormorant,
  
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Consuming means, soon preys upon itself.
This royal throne of kings, this scepter’d isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
  
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Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
  
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Against the envy of less happier lands,
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,
Fear’d by their breed and famous by their birth,
Renowned for their deeds as far from home, —
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For Christian service and true chivalry, —
As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry
Of the world’s ransom, blessed Mary’s Son:
This land of such dear souls, this dear, dear land,
Dear for her reputation through the world,
  
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Is now leas’d out, — I die pronouncing it, —
Like to a tenement, or pelting farm:
England, bound in with the triumphant sea,
Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege
Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame,
  
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With inky blots, and rotten parchment bonds:
That England, that was wont to conquer others,
Hath made a shameful conquest of itself.
Ah! would the scandal vanish with my life,
How happy then were my ensuing death.
  
70

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

Hamlet’s ‘To Be or Not to Be’ Speech

Act III. Scene I
.

Enter
HAMLET.
  
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Ham.
 
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
  
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No more; and, by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;
  
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For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
  
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The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of dispriz’d love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
  
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With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover’d country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
  
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And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
  
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And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action. Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember’d.
  
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List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order