In Hac Spe Vivo – In This Hope, I Live…
A favorite quote purloined openly from Shakespeare’s Pericles, Prince of Tyre… and used by your genial co-communicator as an occasional motto and rallying cry. What made me think of it today was the discovery of a faded and worn photocopy of a letter that I had sent to a great love of mine a few years ago – the original was written on parchment in my best calligraphic hand – and aside from the exchange of personal feelings and emotions ( which I do not intend to share here – so sorry, dear reader! ), contained one of ol’ Will’s most moving sonnets ( in my opinion, anyway ) and used the title of this post as the lead-in…
In lieu of anything original, please let me share with you one of my all-time favorite sonnets – an example perhaps that, although the English language has changed and mutated over hundreds of years, the true emotive power of the written word can still ring true even today.
Shakespeare – Sonnet XC
Then hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now;
Now while the world has bent my deeds to cross,
Join with the spite of fortune; make me bow,
And do not drop in for an after-loss;
Ah! Do not, when my heart hath scap’d this sorrow,
Come in the rearward of a conquer’d woe;
Give not a windy night a rainy morrow,
To linger out a purpos’d overthrow.
If thou wilt leave me, do not leave me last,
When other petty griefs have done their spite,
But in the onset come, so I shall taste
At first the very worst of fortune’s might;
And other strains of woe, which now seem woe,
Compared with loss of thee will not seem so.
Although I know it by heart, I keep a copy of this sonnet in a frame to always remind me: no matter what unexpected hurts or disappointments that life may throw across my path, they pale in comparison to the loss of one who truly means the world to you. I only wish that I could share that lesson with the rest of the world. I think we’d all be better off for it…
In this hope, I live.
.g.
Gewelsi Theos 