Skip main navigation (Press Enter).
Log in
Toggle navigation
Search Options
Log in
Home
About Us
Press
Vision, Mission and Goals
Personnel and Boards
National Coordinators
AWB Affiliates
AWB Logos
Directory
Get Involved
Join AWB
Support AWB
Communities
All Communities
Programs
Astro Arts
Astropoetry
One Sky, One Postcard
Global Astronomy Month
Global Astronomy Month 2024
Asteroid Search Campaign - IASC 2024
Observing Challenges 2024
Discovering the Solar System
In the Footsteps of Celestial Police
Binocular Double Stars
Binocular Open Clusters
Lunar Explorations
In the Footsteps of Galileo
April Sky Maps 2024
Astronomy Accessibility Guidelines and Resources
GAM Logos
April Sky Maps
Observing Resources
Global Astronomy Month 2023
Observing Challenges 2023
Discovering the Solar System
Footsteps of Celestial Police
Lunar Explorations
April Sky Maps 2023
Asteroid Search Campaign - IASC
Observing Events
Geminid Meteor Shower Live
2023 Observing Program
Milky Way Star Festival 2023
Beauty Without Borders - May 2023
Beauty Without Borders - 2024
2023 Solstice Photo Campaign
Venus and Jupiter Close Encounter March 2023
International Observe the Moon Night (InOMN)
World Space Week
Smartphone Astrophotography Workshops
Solar Glasses Distribution
Events
Browse
Discussion Posts
Library Entries
Members Reports
Help/FAQs
Buy to Support - AWB Store
Blogs
×
This Insubstantial Pageant
By
Harley White
posted
09-12-2021 06:37
1
Recommend
This Insubstantial Pageant
Upon our stage we romp and rage
in Goldilocks’s golden cage
amongst colossal cosmic crowd
with spark of liveliness endowed
of pomp and circumstantial fate,
whose worth we underestimate,
in constant discontentment caught
‘and sicklied o’er in cast of thought
so enterprises turn awry’,
with not an inkling as to why.
Oh actors in this earthly scene,
what do your frantic antics mean?
‘The heartaches and the thousand shocks
that flesh is heir to’ come in flocks,
while nature tenders wherewithal
if we but list her earnest call
in lieu of inner outer din
that sends the senses in a spin.
Our little lives today may throng
‘this insubstantial pageant’ long
(to borrow varied Shakespeare tropes),
where humans share despair and hopes
on greater globe of bonny blue—
oh rarest planetary hue!
And yet when all ‘our revels end’
this world will leave a stardust blend
behind, ‘to still a beating mind’
of poet bards midst humankind,
a ‘rack’, or wisp of cloud, as told
in Prospero’s discourse of old;
for sun shall take its final breaths,
as dramatized in stellar deaths,
to be a nebula newborn
celestial heavens to adorn
in evermore creation’s dawn—
yea ‘such stuff as dreams are made on’…
~ Harley White
* * * * * * * * *
Some sources of inspiration were the following…
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) ~ From ‘The Tempest’, Act 4 Scene 1…
https://www.bardweb.net/content/readings/tempest/lines.html
William Shakespeare’s play ‘Hamlet’, Act 3, Scene 1…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_be,_or_not_to_be
Image ~ Starry, Starry Night ~ NASA
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/starry-starry-night
Image explanation ~ The Hubble Space Telescope captured a crowd of stars known as Messier 107, which is one of more than 150 globular star clusters found around the disc of the Milky Way galaxy. Messier 107 can be found in the constellation of Ophiuchus (The Serpent Bearer) and is located about 20,000 light-years from our solar system.
Image Credit: ESA/NASA
#poetry
1 comment
26 views
Related Content
Starry Nursery Rhyme
Harley White
Added 04-17-2021
Blog Entry
The Starry Night
Harley White
Added 02-05-2024
Blog Entry
Starry Fabric
Harley White
Added 05-03-2023
Blog Entry
Celestial Inner Rings
Harley White
Added 07-04-2022
Blog Entry
Cosmic Multicultural Bucharest in the Pandemic (107) By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
Added 03-03-2022
Blog Entry
Permalink
Comments
Andee Sherwood
09-13-2021 11:17
I wonder what Shakespeare would think of the world situation today? Harley, congratulations on another brilliant poem!!!
Contact Us
Phone
+1 262 444 6217
Membership
Join
Benefits
Learn More
Privacy & Terms
About Us
Terms of Use
Copyright 2023. All rights reserved.
Powered by Higher Logic