An Elizabethan Playwright Discourses On A Friendship Gone Wrong With A Fellow Playwright Poem by Dennis Ryan

An Elizabethan Playwright Discourses On A Friendship Gone Wrong With A Fellow Playwright



Wednesday morning, April 11,2018 at 8: 11 a.m.; Thursday evening, April 12 at 8: 26 p.m.; Friday morning, May 4 at 7: 55 a.m.

That our friendship should come to this,
the expression fits: ex nihilo et nihil fit.
And so ‘tis been with him for many years—
tis clear, despite a hiatus, the wassails
of our acquaintance. Nothing changes,
and yet I now realize I never really knew
him for who he was during those younger years.
What prevails with this man, what comforts him?
What be the absolute source of his vile corruption?
Look close at hand, no farther away than his father.
Everything points in that direction—the acorn falls
not far from the oak. A man of repute, his father,
in his day, but enough said on the father's addition
and attribute. What play was't I viewed this fall
that takes me this way... the one about the wight
whose father is killed by his brother, thus robbing
him of his kingdom, his birthright, his just moiety?
There were certain verses that appealed to me
concerning evil, that vicious mole of nature,
others, that dram. Aye, I recall the verses well,
and aye to them all—his scandal brought home,
that he feel it now, be made to endure its sting.
What fee can his betrayal bring him though
he writes ten plays on patricide, on pursuing
the perpetrators to the ends of the earth and back,
making calls for justice and retribution thereby...
when he betrays me? Has he figured it? He has
troubles none in justifying his shameless behavior,
his justifications carrying a stench which wafts,
by the most recent mistrals, its way to far Britanny.

Monday, April 1, 2019
Topic(s) of this poem: evil,play,writing,acting,action,betrayal,england,friendship,history,human condition
POET'S NOTES ABOUT THE POEM
An Elizabethan playwright reflects on what went wrong in a friendship.
COMMENTS OF THE POEM
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Dennis Ryan

Dennis Ryan

Wellsville, New York
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