Okay, this one is also one that I'm not particularly happy with, but I don't want to just ignore it because there are still ideas in it that I like. Anyway, see what you think:
Not Another Romeo and Juliet Reference
Thus with a kiss I die.
We all know the loss
Of Romeo and his Juliet,
So why are we always reminded
Of the tragic lives
They would have led.
Tempt not a desperate man;
The sayings of a great playwright
Come back to haunt us
Again and again
When will it end
From the lips of men?
For nothing can be ill, if she be well.
Do you think it pleases them
To be reminded of their pain?
Are they happy
To be known to be
The world’s great tragedy?
What must be shall be.
But it is done
And we must suffer with them
When lines are said,
To recreate their pain,
Instead of read
A plague o’ both your houses!
So though I call for a halt
To the memory
Of such fate
Their houses shall indeed forever
Be cursed with our hate.
Parting is such sweet sorrow,
But even had I success to claim
It would have done no good
For we separate from old Shakespeare
And his great works
To find something else, I fear.
What’s in a name?
When we speak such things
It is not Romeo
Nor even fair Juliet
For whom we lament
As my subject of debt
Wherefore art thou Romeo?
It is we, and our loves
Upon whom we set the tragedy
There is no Romeo
And no Juliet in our minds
When speak our requiem
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!
So I have gone too far
To condemn this work
And the words from its pages;
For great they are, and shall remain,
Even when our suns have set.
Put up your swords; you know not what you do.
So I lay down my pen,
I finish this poor poem,
And reproach my own words,
As I set out to do
To the rest of you.
