{"id":46258,"date":"2014-08-18T12:00:45","date_gmt":"2014-08-18T11:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=46258"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:30:42","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:30:42","slug":"is-this-a-weapon-i-see-before-me-the-trigger-toward-my-hand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/08\/is-this-a-weapon-i-see-before-me-the-trigger-toward-my-hand\/","title":{"rendered":"Is This a Weapon I See Before Me, the Trigger Toward My Hand?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barack Obama’s\u00a0Soliloquy by Willy ShakesUS<\/em><\/p>\n

Contribution to further comprehension of the The Coalition of the Willy: musings on the global challenge of penile servitude<\/em><\/a> (2004); also see other experimental “poems”<\/a> on this site.<\/p>\n

Soliloquy of the Most Powerful Man on the Planet? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Slightly adapted from The Tragedy of Macbeth<\/em><\/a> (2:1<\/a>), with apologies to William Shakespeare<\/a> (adaptations are highlighted).<\/em><\/p>\n

Is this a weapon<\/a><\/strong> which I see before me,
\nThe trigger<\/a><\/strong> toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
\nI have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
\nArt thou not, fatal vision, sensible
\nTo feeling as to sight? or art thou but
\nA weapon<\/a><\/strong> of the mind, a false creation,
\nProceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
\nI see thee yet, in form as palpable
\nAs this which now I draw.
\nThou marshall’st me the way that I was going;
\nAnd such an instrument I was to use.
\nMine eyes are made the fools o’ the other senses,
\nOr else worth all the rest; I see thee still,
\nAnd on thy shaft<\/a><\/strong> and payload<\/a><\/strong> of blood,
\nWhich was not so before. There’s no such thing:<\/p>\n

It is the bloody business which informs
\nThus to mine eyes. Now o’er the one halfworld
\nNature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
\nThe curtain’d sleep; evil celebrates
\nPale Hellcat<\/a><\/strong>‘s offerings, and wither’d murder,
\nAlarum’d by his sentinel, the wolf,
\nWhose howl’s his watch, thus with his stealthy pace.
\nWith Islam<\/a><\/strong>‘s ravishing strides, towards its design
\nMoves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,
\nHear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
\nThy very stones prate of my whereabout,
\nAnd take the present horror from the time,
\nWhich now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives:
\nWords to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.
\nA bell rings<\/em><\/strong>
\nI go, and it is done; the bell invites me.
\nHear it not, ISIS<\/a><\/strong>; for it is a knell
\nThat summons thee to heaven or to hell.<\/p>\n

See detailed commentary on Shakespeare’s original version<\/a> by Amanda Mabillard.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 laetusinpraesens.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Soliloquy of the Most Powerful Man on the Planet? – Slightly adapted from The Tragedy of Macbeth (2:1), with apologies to William Shakespeare. Barack Obama’s Soliloquy by Willy ShakesUS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry-format"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46258\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}