101 Poems, Number 9

Favorite Poems Throughout My Life

9: “Sigh No More,” song from Much Ado About Nothing (2.3), 1598, by William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

A song encapsulating all

The conflicts in this Shakespeare play—

How men are fickle (to this day?)—

And make of love a wailing wall.

This play has lightness at its end—

But darkness hovers everywhere:

The lack of trust, the lack of care.

How stubborn men dislike to bend.

But Shakespeare knew that comedy

Is just a lighter form of dark—

A lovely landscape, sometimes stark.

But watch the film*—and you will see!

*Kenneth Branagh, et al., 1993; Branagh places the song at the very beginning of the film—good idea, in my view!

Link to song.