Tuesday, March 6, 2018

101 Books, Number 20


Favorite Books Throughout My Life


20: Much Ado About Nothing, 1598, by William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

I saw this film when it came out
In 1993.
And I knew right away that it
Would work in class for me.*

The Taming of the Shrew had been
The play I’d had kids read—
But Much Ado was fresher now—
I knew it would succeed.

And so it did—we had such fun
With Benedick and all.
The cast was varied—talented—
From large parts to the small.

With Branagh,Thompson, Beckinsale,
With Leonard and Denzel,
With Reeves and Biers, and Keaton, too—
They all did very well.

Like all the Bard’s great comedies—
And all I do adore—
This Much Ado had lightness, yes—
But darkness at the core.

But love, in comedies, must reign—
So it reigns here, as well.
The Good Guys won—the Bad Guys lost
Before the curtain fell.

*I was teaching 8th grade English at Harmon Middle School; Aurora, Ohio, near the end of my public-school teaching career (in 1997).

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