As for adults understanding it better, I find that true of many classics. Louis Carroll's stuff especially. For kids it is full of silly things, as an adult I recognized all those characters as caricatures of types of people I knew.
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[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
In a message dated 2/17/2004 5:08:27 AM Pacific Standard Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
Yes, every once in a while a third rate
critic who hopes to get his name in the paper disparages the bard or even attributes his work to someone else. But among true scholars of English literature, good Will has been revered for four centuries.
It took me a long, long time to "get" Shakespeare. Only in rereading stuff as an older adult, did I finally realize how poetic his language was. Not always, but often. Sheer poetry -- unbelievable.
It's a shame kids are forced to read him in high school (US) -- turns them right off. Or maybe if they picked better plays, or just concentrated on one play. The difficulty of the archaic language makes it very hard to understand for teenagers. So most completely miss the poetry. (And sure, some of the plot contrivances are a bit hackneyed, mainly in the comedies).
One of these days I will sit down and read as many plays as I can. Or find a Shakespeare reading group. Or start one.
Marnie aka Doe :-) Still sort of a Shakespeare ignoramus, but now I understand (much, much later in life) why his plays have endured.
-- graywolf http://graywolfphoto.com
"You might as well accept people as they are, you are not going to be able to change them anyway."
