One day, while still studying Hamlet, daughter's AP English Literature class assignment was to write a parody of Hamlet's famous "To Be Or Not To Be" monologue.
She
and I tossed about various ideas - "To Clean or Not to Clean", "To
Study or Not to Study", "To Sleep or Not to Sleep" and this is what she
finally came up with:
A Vampire's Thoughts:
"To bite or not to bite - that is the question:
Whether it's purer in heart to suffer
The pain and ulcers of cravings for nourishment
And, by withstanding, deny them. To abstain -
It ends - and by abstaining, change the way
the undead roam, without marking our live prey,
humans no more - it is an ideal world
A yearning to fulfill. To abstain -
To abstain, perhaps to starve. Yes, that's the crux,
For in that state of starvation, what comes next,
Because this cursed life can not end,
What would ensue? That's the matter
Which makes us pursue this undead life.
For who would continue this bloody deed,
The fair lady's death, the lover's demise,
The hurts of forbidden love, the bite that kills,
The eternal damnation, and the darkness
Which hides our sinful deeds from all but us,
When we might alter by resisting the pull
Of pulsing blood? Who would this toll pay,
To kill a love and feed on their blood,
But for the fear of our self-starved state,
Which may persuade us to bite and sate,
Our hunger for our existence's sake,
Our sacrifice in vain, nothing really
Will have changed. The angry temptation
Is all we know, why should we change
When the blood eternally flows?
Thus our desires keep us chained to the wall
Of blood, and thus our insatiable thirst
Nullifies our reason, depriving us of thought,
And noble attempts to halt our bloody actions
Always fail to cause any worthy reactions,
And are never to be mentioned."
You think the teacher would have guessed she was a fan of the Twilight books?
How very clever is your daughter. Love this. She has a great sense of humour. This also should be worth an A.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Susan. Yes, I believe she received an A for this, too. :)
DeleteShe loved her English Literature classes. In 9th Grade, they studied Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and for one of the class assignments, she and some of her friends put together a play, complete with a dance my daughter choreographed, costumes, and props. To indicate the knight was having a bright idea - a "light bulb moment" so to speak, in an era before light bulbs were invented, they made and painted a cardboard cut out of a candle and held that above the knight's head. They had a dress rehearsal at my home and I invited one of my neighbors to come over and watch, so they could practice in front of an audience. The teacher was so impressed, she asked them if they'd perform it at the annual parent-teacher dinner and gave them extra credits for it. :)
I love the poem and the song. Your daughter has real talent! x
ReplyDeleteThank you, Lyssa. She had fun writing them. :)
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