Act two in Hamlet starts with much more family trouble. Some of Hamlet but more of Polonious and his two children. Leartes is off to France to study were little does he know that he is not alone. Ophelia talks hysterically of the way that Hamlet has treated her lately. Polonious has more than he can handle with only two hands.

After permission from King Claudius and Polonious Leartes is on his way to France for his studies. Leartes and Ophelia have quite a heart to heart convosation before she leaves. After we see Leartes leave, we see Polonious having a convosation with Reynaldo who he sends to watch after Leartes in France. This shows the lack of trust Polonious has in his own son and up to this point we are not sure of why. It is in my opinion that Leartes may not actually be his son but a son of Gertrude and Claudius. This would make sense for the care and concern he shows for him.

Not only is there trouble with his son but also his daughter Ophelia. After some what of an affair with Claudius she tells her father that Hamlet has become obsessive and abusive. She comes to his room in tears and hurt and shows the letter to Polonious who instantly takes it to King Claudius. This is just the breeze of the hurricane.

It is my understanding that act two is foreshadowing events to come with both Hamlet, Claudius, and Polonious; and between Ophelia Hamlet and Polonious. There is a sense of pressure building between them all and I feel that in act two is the first time that we see it start to erupt. Shakespeare’s use of emotion to build the anxiety is almost to great, but not really.

Act five brings one crazy and eventful ending to Shakespeare’s Hamlet. When Laertes, Polonious’ son returns to a dead father and sister he wishes to seek revenge. Though Hamlet is already gone to England he still wishes revenge on him. When Hamlet returns to Denmark, King Claudius and Laertes plan once again to seek revenge and kill hamlet.

The ending to Hamlet ends with a BANG, it is almost to crazy for the rest of the play, including Hamlets wretched jokes and antics. In their plan for revenge they decide to host a fight between Laertes and Hamlet. Normally the fights are with dulled fencing blades to promote safety. However, Laertes uses a sharpened sword and laced with poison. Incase of a victory by Hamlet over Laertes, King Claudius has a poisoned glass of wine for him. As the fight begins Hamlet is first slightly cut by Laertes’s sword. Then Queen Gertrude drinks of the poison glass. Hamlet and Laertes continue fighting, in a blow they exchange swords and Hamlet slices him with his own poison sword. Then when his mother passes, Hamlet slays Claudius with the Poisoned sword and forces him to drink the rest of the wine.

So much happens in the last few pages of the play it is incredible. All of them die which I find ironic because those who attempt to kill Hamlet die from their own “Poison”. Laertes slain by his own sword and King Claudius is struck by a blow of poisoned sword. Everyone dies except for Horatio, which is the first and the last character we see. The ending never stops amazing me, the way Shakespeare ended the play is simply fascinating.

In act four of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet’s antics take a more serious role. After stabbing Polonious instead of King Claudius as he had intended, the tides change. After hiding Polonious’s body from the King and everyone for quite a while, Hamlet finally tells them where he hid the body. After they retrieve his body the King advises Hamlet to go to England. Little does Hamlet know that it is all part of his plan. King Claudius sends his two friends with a letter to have Hamlet sentenced to death upon arrival in England. Just as Hamlet figured Claudius killed his father King Hamlet, King Claudius attempts to kill hamlet.

Though not intentional Hamlet kills Polonious which opens up a opportunity to kill Hamlet. Shakespeare has the boat the he was on to England robbed by pirates on purpose. Just like as throughout the entire play Shakespeare intentionally lures hamlet into a trap and he escapes the trap without knowledge of it. This makes for a play that strikes interest in my mind and in that of others. Shakespeare’s use of literature is in a way of no other author. He uses his knowledge of literature and manipulates it into his own ways. Shakespeare’s use of this language intrigues me the most out of all that is packed into his plays.

The first act of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is tangled with multiple cases of family disorder. Both Hamlet himself and his lover Ophilia have troubles with their families. We encounter these family troubles almost right at the beginning of the play. It is a intriguing start to one of Shakespeare’s longest plays.

We find hamlet in a bundle of depression and stress with the recent progression of his family problems. His father died of poising and to the best of our knowledge we do not find the people of Denmark to be in much disarray. This is topped off by the marriage of his mother to his uncle, his fathers own brother. If the marriage of his mom to his uncle bothers you this is just the tip of the iceberg. His mom did not seem to be bothered by the death of her husband which leads me to believe that she may have been in on his murder. It is less than a few months later that she married her brother in law. In hamlet’s words, the food from the funeral was still good for the wedding food, meaning a very short duration of time. Towards the end of act one hamlet meets his fathers ghost which if it were for me and I saw a ghost of my father would just add to the suffering .

Ophelia, Leartes daughter finds herself in a family dilemma of her own. Her brother moved to France to study school and her own father does not trust him. He sends Renaldo, a spy, to watch over him in France. Leartes forces Ophelia to stop talking to Hamlet which drives him and her mad. Hamlet sends letters constantly which Ophelia shows to her father, showing them to the King himself. This causes more trouble on both sides and some fun for Shakespeare and Hamlets antics.

Gone

time passed bye

pushing against the tide

holding on for their last set

a glimpse to be sought for

even if only one last eye

together they pass

their last picture will

forever forever last

one day thell be found

Gone.

corpses remain but soles

never to be found

Gone in peace

Gone

Though not one of dylans “songs” 21 is my favorite poem that dylan wrote that he is not popular for. The imagery and mood of 21 is what i find attracts me to it. The length is uncommon for Dylan but it is a entire song compressed into a small poem.

Due to the Edublogs mechanical failure and a long technology free vacation I have not posted in a while but fellow bloggers I am back and more ready then ever. Edublog made my spring research project a pleasure. I not only feel that I was able to gain the same knowledge as I did from the fall but it was a fun and interactive change from the standard paper. I think that having the fall research paper a written paper is necessary to gain the experience of how to do proper research for college and for this spring research project. This spring project seemed easier with the blog and with the prior help with researching from the fall project. I would definitely recommend having the spring project a blog and fall a paper just as this year for next year students. However, This is just to say… if I could change one thing I would spread the posts out. Having two a week still but maybe one Monday night and one Thursday night would lighten the load. Not from personal experience or anything but one a night is more manageable. Other than that the blogosphere was a fun and interactive way to have a final research project.

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• Dylan’s forever young, blog link which interested me because of the  depth of his lyrics and the          ongoing legacy his song has had.

One of Bob Dylan’s best friends was a poet by the name of Allen Ginsberg. Born in 1926 there was quite a age spread, Allen Ginsberg was nearly 15 years older than Bob Dylan. They met in 1963 at the Tom Paine Award dinner. Ginsberg and Dylan would continue to be friends for the next 34 years until the death of Ginsberg at the age of 70 in 1997.

Music was a large part in the relationship of Dylan and Ginsberg. Allen Ginsberg had his way with words and was an exceptional poet. Dylan helped Ginsberg to play a few chords of the guitar and get him on his way to being a better musician. As Ginsberg learned guitar from Dylan, Ginsberg helped Dylan with his song writing and from 1971 to 1982 they even recorded together. Ginsberg first influenced Dylan with his book Howl, Dylan read this book years before even personally meeting Ginsberg.

Though Ginsberg was publically openly sexually attracted to Dylan, Dylan still was able to maintain the friendship. It is in my belief that this attraction played a role in the strength of there friendship. After Dylan was in a motorcycle accident while recuperating at Woodstock, Ginsberg brought Dylan a box of books. This box contained books of poetry, which would later influence Dylan, books of Sir Thomas Wyatt, Campion. Dickinson, Rimbaud, Lorca, Apollinaire, Blake, and Whitman. After the death of Ginsberg in 1997 while Dylan was on tour, Dylan dedicated a few songs to him that night including one of his most memorable “Desolation Row”

Dylan and Ginsberg

http://expectingrain.com/dok/who/g/ginsbergallen.html

Bob Dylan is one of the most influential poets of this modern day. There has been question as to whether he is a poet or a singer. He has been nominated for The Nobel Prize in Literature every year since 1996. There is little reason for one to doubt that he is both a poet. “Yippee! I’m a poet, and I know it
Hope I don’t blow it .” A line from his song “I Shall Be Free No. 10″ were he himself admits to being a poet himself. He has admitted to being influenced by poets such as T.S. Elliot, Ezra Pound, and Dylan Thomas to name a few. He even goes as far as writing songs after them and getting naming him self after them.

Born Robert Allen Zimmerman he later took the stage name of Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan took this new name from one of his largest influences Dylan Thomas. Dylan Thomas was a Welsh poet who wrote only in English even when he moved to London. Dylan Thomas was one of Bob Dylan’s predecessors and acknowledges his knowledge and appreciation of Dylan Thomas’ poetry. Bob Dylan in his Chronicles: Volume One, Dylan acknowledged that he was influenced by the poetry of Dylan Thomas. Though not born Bob Dylan he gained his stage name from his influential forebear Dylan Thomas.

Bob Dylan found authors such as T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound to be the most influential in his own poetry. Though still extremely influential [T.S. Eliot] Dylan talks of Ezra Pound as being more influential then Eliot. Some say that Bob Dylan gained his imagism from Pound. Pound himself was a pioneer in imagism, the clarity of expression through the use of precise visual images. Dylan is often popular for his straight to the point lyrics but also incorporates imagery. He used imagery in many of his poems. (Dylan, 21)

death silenced her pool

the day she died

hovered over

her little toy dogs

but left no trace

of itself

at her

funeral

His poem 21 is very unclear and leaves a lot to the readers imagination. He does not completely link together his lines and leaves it to the reader to best “imagine” what he is trying to say. T.S. Eliot was another of Dylan’s forebears in which Dylan looked to. In Dylan’s song “Desolation Row,” he name drops both Eliot and Pound and jokes of their differences

Praise be to Nero’s Neptune


The Titanic sails at dawn


And everybody’s shouting


“Which Side Are You On?” 


And Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot


Fighting in the captain’s tower


While calypso singers laugh at them


And fishermen hold flowers

Dylan openly admits to being influenced by Eliot and Pound, he is a man who influenced many and who himself was influenced by the best of modern poets.

Woody Guthrie held the greatest musical influence on Bob Dylan. After dropping out of college freshman year Dylan became friends with Woody. Woody is were Dylan found “his” style. Woody had a simple songwriting style that Dylan envied. Woody’s songs meant what they said and were straight to the point as we find in “most” of Dylan’s works. Dylan spent years with Woody and when Woody died he paid tribute to his death with his song “Last Thoughts On Woody Guthrie”

When yer head gets twisted and yer mind grows numb
When you think you’re too old, too young, too smart or too dumb
When yer laggin’ behind an’ losin’ yer pace
In a slow-motion crawl of life’s busy race
No matter what yer doing if you start givin’ up
If the wine don’t come to the top of yer cup
If the wind’s got you sideways with with one hand holdin’ on
And the other starts slipping and the feeling is gone
And yer train engine fire needs a new spark to catch it
And the wood’s easy findin’ but yer lazy to fetch it
And yer sidewalk starts curlin’ and the street gets too long
And you start walkin’ backwards though you know its wrong
And lonesome comes up as down goes the day
And tomorrow’s mornin’ seems so far away
And you feel the reins from yer pony are slippin’
And yer rope is a-slidin’ ’cause yer hands are a-drippin’
And yer sun-decked desert and evergreen valleys
Turn to broken down slums and trash-can alleys
And yer sky cries water and yer drain pipe’s a-pourin’
And the lightnin’s a-flashing and the thunder’s a-crashin’
And the windows are rattlin’ and breakin’ and the roof tops a-shakin’
And yer whole world’s a-slammin’ and bangin’
And yer minutes of sun turn to hours of storm
And to yourself you sometimes say
”I never knew it was gonna be this way
Why didn’t they tell me the day I was born”
And you start gettin’ chills and yer jumping from sweat
And you’re lookin’ for somethin’ you ain’t quite found yet
And yer knee-deep in the dark water with yer hands in the air
And the whole world’s a-watchin’ with a window peek stare
And yer good gal leaves and she’s long gone a-flying
And yer heart feels sick like fish when they’re fryin’
And yer jackhammer falls from yer hand to yer feet
And you need it badly but it lays on the street
And yer bell’s bangin’ loudly but you can’t hear its beat
And you think yer ears might a been hurt
Or yer eyes’ve turned filthy from the sight-blindin’ dirt
And you figured you failed in yesterdays rush
When you were faked out an’ fooled white facing a four flush
And all the time you were holdin’ three queens
And it’s makin you mad, it’s makin’ you mean
Like in the middle of Life magazine
Bouncin’ around a pinball machine
And there’s something on yer mind you wanna be saying
That somebody someplace oughta be hearin’
But it’s trapped on yer tongue and sealed in yer head
And it bothers you badly when your layin’ in bed
And no matter how you try you just can’t say it
And yer scared to yer soul you just might forget it
And yer eyes get swimmy from the tears in yer head
And yer pillows of feathers turn to blankets of lead
And the lion’s mouth opens and yer staring at his teeth
And his jaws start closin with you underneath
And yer flat on your belly with yer hands tied behind
And you wish you’d never taken that last detour sign
And you say to yourself just what am I doin’
On this road I’m walkin’, on this trail I’m turnin’
On this curve I’m hanging
On this pathway I’m strolling, in the space I’m taking
In this air I’m inhaling
Am I mixed up too much, am I mixed up too hard
Why am I walking, where am I running
What am I saying, what am I knowing
On this guitar I’m playing, on this banjo I’m frailin’
On this mandolin I’m strummin’, in the song I’m singin’
In the tune I’m hummin’, in the words I’m writin’
In the words that I’m thinkin’
In this ocean of hours I’m all the time drinkin’
Who am I helping, what am I breaking
What am I giving, what am I taking
But you try with your whole soul best
Never to think these thoughts and never to let
Them kind of thoughts gain ground
Or make yer heart pound
But then again you know why they’re around
Just waiting for a chance to slip and drop down
”Cause sometimes you hear’em when the night times comes creeping
And you fear that they might catch you a-sleeping
And you jump from yer bed, from yer last chapter of dreamin’
And you can’t remember for the best of yer thinking
If that was you in the dream that was screaming
And you know that it’s something special you’re needin’
And you know that there’s no drug that’ll do for the healin’
And no liquor in the land to stop yer brain from bleeding
And you need something special
Yeah, you need something special all right
You need a fast flyin’ train on a tornado track
To shoot you someplace and shoot you back
You need a cyclone wind on a stream engine howler
That’s been banging and booming and blowing forever
That knows yer troubles a hundred times over
You need a Greyhound bus that don’t bar no race
That won’t laugh at yer looks
Your voice or your face
And by any number of bets in the book
Will be rollin’ long after the bubblegum craze
You need something to open up a new door
To show you something you seen before
But overlooked a hundred times or more
You need something to open your eyes
You need something to make it known
That it’s you and no one else that owns
That spot that yer standing, that space that you’re sitting
That the world ain’t got you beat
That it ain’t got you licked
It can’t get you crazy no matter how many
Times you might get kicked
You need something special all right
You need something special to give you hope
But hope’s just a word
That maybe you said or maybe you heard
On some windy corner ’round a wide-angled curve

But that’s what you need man, and you need it bad
And yer trouble is you know it too good
”Cause you look an’ you start getting the chills

“Cause you can’t find it on a dollar bill
And it ain’t on Macy’s window sill
And it ain’t on no rich kid’s road map
And it ain’t in no fat kid’s fraternity house
And it ain’t made in no Hollywood wheat germ
And it ain’t on that dimlit stage
With that half-wit comedian on it
Ranting and raving and taking yer money
And you thinks it’s funny
No you can’t find it in no night club or no yacht club
And it ain’t in the seats of a supper club
And sure as hell you’re bound to tell
That no matter how hard you rub
You just ain’t a-gonna find it on yer ticket stub
No, and it ain’t in the rumors people’re tellin’ you
And it ain’t in the pimple-lotion people are sellin’ you
And it ain’t in no cardboard-box house
Or down any movie star’s blouse
And you can’t find it on the golf course
And Uncle Remus can’t tell you and neither can Santa Claus
And it ain’t in the cream puff hair-do or cotton candy clothes
And it ain’t in the dime store dummies or bubblegum goons
And it ain’t in the marshmallow noises of the chocolate cake voices
That come knockin’ and tappin’ in Christmas wrappin’
Sayin’ ain’t I pretty and ain’t I cute and look at my skin
Look at my skin shine, look at my skin glow
Look at my skin laugh, look at my skin cry
When you can’t even sense if they got any insides
These people so pretty in their ribbons and bows
No you’ll not now or no other day
Find it on the doorsteps made out-a paper mache¥
And inside it the people made of molasses
That every other day buy a new pair of sunglasses
And it ain’t in the fifty-star generals and flipped-out phonies
Who’d turn yuh in for a tenth of a penny
Who breathe and burp and bend and crack
And before you can count from one to ten
Do it all over again but this time behind yer back
My friend
The ones that wheel and deal and whirl and twirl
And play games with each other in their sand-box world
And you can’t find it either in the no-talent fools
That run around gallant
And make all rules for the ones that got talent
And it ain’t in the ones that ain’t got any talent but think they do
And think they’re foolin’ you
The ones who jump on the wagon
Just for a while ’cause they know it’s in style
To get their kicks, get out of it quick
And make all kinds of money and chicks
And you yell to yourself and you throw down yer hat
Sayin’, “Christ do I gotta be like that
Ain’t there no one here that knows where I’m at
Ain’t there no one here that knows how I feel
Good God Almighty
THAT STUFF AIN’T REAL”

No but that ain’t yer game, it ain’t even yer race
You can’t hear yer name, you can’t see yer face
You gotta look some other place
And where do you look for this hope that yer seekin’
Where do you look for this lamp that’s a-burnin’
Where do you look for this oil well gushin’
Where do you look for this candle that’s glowin’
Where do you look for this hope that you know is there
And out there somewhere
And your feet can only walk down two kinds of roads
Your eyes can only look through two kinds of windows
Your nose can only smell two kinds of hallways
You can touch and twist
And turn two kinds of doorknobs
You can either go to the church of your choice
Or you can go to Brooklyn State Hospital
You’ll find God in the church of your choice
You’ll find Woody Guthrie in Brooklyn State Hospital

And though it’s only my opinion
I may be right or wrong
You’ll find them both
In the Grand Canyon
At sundown

It is not uncommon to find references to Woody throughout many of Dylan’s songs. Dylan writes a extremely in depth and lengthy song for Woody obviously showing tribute to him as a friend and idol.

The Times They Are A-Changin’-Bob Dylan 1964

Come gather ’round people

Wherever you roam

And admit that the waters

Around you have grown

And accept it that soon

You’ll be drenched to the bone.

If your time to you

Is worth savin’

Then you better start swimmin’

Or you’ll sink like a stone

For the times they are a-changin’.

Come writers and critics

Who prophesize with your pen

And keep your eyes wide

The chance won’t come again

And don’t speak too soon

For the wheel’s still in spin

And there’s no tellin’ who

That it’s namin’.

For the loser now

Will be later to win

For the times they are a-changin’.

Come senators, congressman

Please heed the call

Don’t stand in the doorway

Don’t block up the hall

For he who gets hurt

Will be he who has stalled

There’s a battle outside

And it is ragin’.

It’ll soon shake your windows

And rattle your walls

For the times they are a-changin’.

Come mothers and fathers

Throughout the land

And don’t criticize

What you can’t understand

Your sons and your daughters

Are beyond your command

You old road is

Rapidly agin’.

Please get out of the new one

If you can’t lend your hand

For the times they are a-changin’.

The line it is drawn

The curse it is cast

The slow one now

Will later be fast

As the present now

Will later be past

The order is

Rapidly fadin’.

And the first one now

Will later be last

For the times they are a-changin’.

Dylan’s The Times They are A-Changin’ was released in 1964. 1964 was a growth for the United States with the Civil Rights movement. This leads me to believe that in this song Bob Dylan talks of the change that is soon to come. That the ones who were currently in charge would not be for long and, the times they are a-changin’. The prejudice and racism held by the leaders of our country was not taken kindly to by Dylan and he speaks his mind in The Times They are A-Changin’. He says, “At as the present now, will later be past, the order is, rapidly fadin’”(Lines 59-63), that the current youth and counterculture would one day very soon take order and the current order is rapidly fadin’.

Bob Dylan pleaded: “Please heed the call / Don’t stand in the doorway / Don’t block up the hall / For he that gets hurt / Will be he who has stalled / There’s a battle outside / And it is ragin’. / It’ll soon shake your windows / And rattle your walls / For the times they are a-changin’.” For the sake of the Somali and their immediate neighbors in the Horn of Africa as well as the security and other legitimate interests of the United States and other responsible members of the international community, it can only be hoped that, once the Bush administration leaves office, the Obama foreign policy team, especially the State Department which will be led by Hillary Clinton, will take a more realistic approach to dealing with the dynamic conditions in that difficult, but nonetheless geostrategically important, corner of the world. (J. Peter Pham, Ph.D.)

Just as with the protests of 1964 Dylan’s song can be related with situations today. J. Peter Pham compares a verse of Dylan’s song to a current event and with the Bush administration and how the times will soon be changin’, hopefully for the better. This song has straight to the point meaning with a tense argumentative tone.

http://worlddefensereview.com/pham120408.shtml