Saturday, November 19, 2016

"Hamlet's Farewell"

When my daughter was in high school, her 12th grade class studied Shakespeare's play, Hamlet.  Once they finished studying the play, the students were required to do a project based on the play - deliver a monologue, design a set, act a scene, etc. 

My daughter decided to sing a song, based on the last scene in the play where a dying Hamlet tells Horatio that he (Horatio) must live to tell the tale.  She was allowed to use existing music and she chose the tune of "What I Did For Love" from the musical, A Chorus Line.

These are the lyrics she wrote and sang:

Hamlet's Farewell

Keep the mem'ry near,
And tell them of our story,
This tale of love and revenge
What a son would do
To avenge his Sire's
Untimely death

What revenge has done,
The tale is never ending
I tried to kill Claudius
Who my father killed,
Who my mother wed
Just for power's sake

Oh, what have I done
I killed Polonius,
Caused Ophelia to drown

Thus the question rose,
"To be or not to be?"
I did what I thought I should
The killer's guilt,
The son's revenge,
All of this is done

Denmark is now gone
Death has conquered all
What has happened now,
Is not at all how
I had planned my revenge

So our story ends
With death as the sole winner
Fortinbras is coming now
He is here,
I am dead,
Please remember me

That's all I ask you

And the rest is...silence.


She said "silence" in a whisper as the music came to an end.  I believe she received an A for her project. 


2 comments:

  1. Very clever, I really like her song. I certainly think it would be worth an A.

    Bushlady

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Bushlady. We loved the fact that the teacher encouraged creativity in the homework assignments.

      Delete

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