Poetry for the Inner Ear

Shakespeare is the greatest poet of the world. His most famous plays are Macbeth, King Lear, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, The Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing, Richard II, The Winter’s Tale, Cymbeline . Ben Jonson admired him in the following lines: Soul of the age! The applause! delight! the wonder of our stage! My Shakespeare, rise; I will not lodge thee by Chaucer or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie A little further to make thee a room.   There is no doubt that Shakespeare is the greatest genius that human nature has yet produced. He was rightly called “our myriad-minded Shakespeare” by the famous critic S.T. Coleridge. Shakespeare was not of an age, but of all ages. For example, we may take the following immortal quotes by Shakespeare: How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world. Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Th...

In Search of Shakespeare’s Vocabulary No other author-ancient, modern and postmodern- has a richer vocabulary than Shakespeare. Shakespeare used about 29,000 words in his writings. Milton employed 8,000 words. The Iliad and Odyssey together used 9,000 words; in the New Testament, there are about 4800 words used. It may be further added that an average person uses only about 500 words. The main reason behind Shakespeare using about 29,000 words is that he was writing about many different types of theme-the treachery, lust, jealousy, ingratitude, the follies of the great, and a thousand other moods and passions. A large number of conceits, phrases and a large number of coined words in his tragedies, comedies and sonnets makes his style monumental. The use of antitheses and paradox Shakespeare’s plays makes his style unique. For example,in Macbeth,we can notice the following lines: 1. Nothing is But what is not 2. The insane root That takes the reason prisoner. 3. Ange...