Singing In Your Reign Poem by gershon hepner

SINGING IN YOUR REIGN


You are the seemly raiment of my heart;
that's why I now am singing in your reign,
for you're my queen who rules me with the art
of Cupid, to transfix me without pain
with artful arrows Cupid shoots from your
direction, having been by you directed.
His aim is just as steady and as sure
as yours, and does not need to be corrected.
I'm living in a house that's dedicated
to corporeal correction, which is stupid,
but thanks to you my spirit is elated,
in thrall to you while threesoming with Cupid.
This sonnet is no quid pro quo or payment
for what you have done, it is my raiment.

John Heilpern (Newsmen of La Mancha, " Vanity Fair, January 2011) writes about Sidney Harman:

Sidney Harman, the 92-year-old stereo-equipment magnate who, during an apparent brainstorm, bought the ailing Newsweek from the Washington Post Company for a dollar (and assumed more than $50 million in liabilities) , kindly offered me lunch at his home, a well-lighted, Bauhaus-style place, only a few minutes' drive from downtown Washington, D.C.
I was admiring the modern art in the airy living room when Mr. Harman burst in, like an actor making an entrance. Informally dressed in shirtsleeves, he looked about 20 years younger than he is. "What do I call you? , " I asked as we shook hands, for among the many roles he plays is Dr. Harman. (He became a doctor of social psychology in his 50s.) Or Professor Harman. (He's Professor of Polymathy at the University of Southern California.) Thank God for Google! Polymathy: the study and inter-relation of great and varied learning. Cf. Leonardo da Vinci. "Call me Sidney, " he replied breezily. "Call me friend. To adapt James Baldwin, call me what you like. I know my name! "
I put it to a test. Harman the polymath is also the author, Shakespeare lover, and philanthropist who funded the Harman Center for the Arts in Washington, D.C., home to the distinguished Shakespeare Theatre Company. "What's your favorite sonnet? , " I wondered.
He didn't hesitate! His choice was Shakespeare's meltingly beautiful Sonnet 22, beginning, "My glass shall not persuade me I am old / So long as youth and thou are of one date." He went on to recite it from memory with unpretentious, quiet, touching conviction: :
For all that beauty that doth cover thee
Is but the seemly raiment of my heart,
Which in thy breast doth live, as thine in me:
How can I then be elder than thou art?
"My wife is 27 years my junior, " he added when he was done, and laughed. Jane Harman, his wife of some 30 years, is a Democratic congresswoman who represents Southern California.
"Oh, I tell you. I love that stuff! " he announced in his enthusiasm for Shakespeare. "Here's another! But it's not a sonnet. It's a toast I've used, and you may choose to borrow it. It's from King John, one of his less regarded plays."
He then launched into King John's stanza of eternal love. ("He is the half part of a blessed man... ") It was when he had finished his recitation of a chunk from Oscar Wilde's De Profundis, however, that I asked if he had ever acted on the stage.
"Always, " he replied.



5/11/12 #10167