William Shakespeare

Sonnet CXLIV:Two loves I have of comfort and despair
By William Shakespeare

Two loves I have of comfort and despair,
Which like two spirits do suggest me still
The better angel is a man right fair,
The worser spirit a woman coloured ill.
To win me soon to hell, my female evil
Tempteth my better angel from my side,
And would corrupt my saint to be a devil,
Wooing his purity with her foul pride.
And, whether that my angel be turn'd fiend,
Suspect I may, yet not directly tell,
But being both from me both to each friend,
I guess one angel in another's hell.
Yet this shall I ne'er know, but live in doubt,
Till my bad angel fire my good one out.

It has been said many times by many people everyone desires to be happy. Every time I see this I wonder the truth of it. There has been too many instances where people have worked very hard at being unhappy and uncomfortable that I have wondered about the so-called truth of that saying.

Another saying that seems to be related to that of people wanting to be happy is the ones in which people blame all sorts of other people other than themselves for their unhappiness and discomfort such as the sonnet above. Some men would say that everything would be so perfect if it wasn't for women tempting them away from God. Men have been blaming women for just about everything since the beginning of human time; and to be fair the blame has been returned. It's just men are free enough to write about it. Women just grumble about it in the pot boiling on the stove or the wash they are pounding on the riverbank.

I know that I am no different. It is so much easier to blame someone for my unhappiness, for my dysfunctional childhood, for my bad habits, for just about everything. And in truth I did have some very bad parents who would probably be arrested these days. I know of a middle aged man who still blames his mother for everything that goes wrong in his life. What a waste. It's my life now and I am responsible for it now. I know of a woman who is angry at her brother for raping her as a child. She should be angry and I am not dismissing her claims that the act did have damages. Its just the man is dead now and she needs to start her healing and get on with her life now. She can't keep blaming him for her life now. If she remains attached to a dead man, her life can't begin.

Many men blame women for their sexual desires so they make the women they have control over wear veils and long dresses. That does not remove their sexual desires. They are still angry at them for having those feelings which are natural extensions of their humanity. They penalized their family members for their own desires. Its a cycle that isn't broken.

Poetry is a wonderful thing in which we express what we feel, hope and want. Few of us have the talent and ability of a William Shakespeare but we can read him and see that with all of his expertise, he has the same problems we all have and need to address some attention to the inner self a bit more and stop blaming people outside of himself for what was inside of him. Considering the cause of his death at a fairly young age, it was certainly understandable. He died of syphilis at the age of 52.