Good night, sweet prince...

"Good night, sweet prince,

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest."

-Horatio, Hamlet, 5.2.302-3

The above quote is one that I found ten years ago while struggling to write a eulogy for my father's funeral and it is one that has stayed close to my heart since.  When saying "good-bye" the quote makes my heart flutter in sadness, but also soar in elation.  What I most enjoy about this class, and others that I've taken, is that although a grade is issued and farewells are said at the end of the semester, the learning never really ends.  About a month ago I finally got into my Shakespeare groove and now that the final few hours of the semester are commencing I regret the time that I lost.  This is my last semester of class before I student teach in the fall and this class was my only and final literature class of the semester and program.  I'm happy that Studies in Shakespeare is the bang that will hurl me into the classroom.  As you may have read, I've spent a lot of this semester in reflection about how to keep Shakespeare in our classrooms and how to engage the students.  I want to thank Lauren Scull for mentioning me in one of her recent blog posts and citing that us mere English Education majors can compete with our knowledge and approach when it comes to Billy Shakes.


I think a lot about what I've learned this semester and where it will take me.  I recently read about a school in Great Falls, Montana that gave Shakespeare the boot in order to make room for more progressive materials. While I understand their idea my inner-teacher and literature lover is screaming profanities at their ignorance.  It isn't Shakespeare that is the problem, but the teachers.  Gasp!  I can't believe I said that, but I did...are we becoming lazy as educators?  If there are experts who have studied Shakespeare, why can't their be experts who teach Shakespeare?  Could I be one?


A few people have made mention to the quote below...and indeed it is beautiful.  Recently I was watching the film, The King's Speech and this, along with other Shakespeare quotes, was said.  Remarkable and I'm stricken with love over having known the reference.

Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,

Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.

Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments

Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices

That, if I then had waked after long sleep,

Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming,

The clouds methought would open and show riches

Ready to drop upon me that, when I waked,

I cried to dream again.

Before Shakespeare meant beautiful language that perplexed and stimulated my mind, but what the words mean now are so much more.  I believe that when you encounter a topic that urges you to keep learning and to be thoughtful and aggressive in your approach you have found quite the gem. I've felt this way in my past about mountains, and horses, and books, and authors, and teaching, and now I live a life that incorporates all of those gems...and I am so lucky...I don't have to cry to dream again because life is best with my eyes wide open.


Thank you classmates, thank you Dr. Sexson and my other fabulous professors, thank you  Montana State University, and thank you William Shakespeare.