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