The Helsingor Dane

The Great Dane Shakespeare wrote about
Whose monologues proclaimed his doubt
About his father's odd demise
Have led to many actors' rise

To fame as they declaimed on stage
The mental anguish that did rage
In young Hamlet's tortured brain;
Ophelia, poor love, went insane.

A tragedy in several acts
A playwright's toying with the facts
Battles, murder, floating dagger
A hero with mendacious swagger.

The play within a play was cruel
A cup of poison, deadly duel
The state of Denmark indeed rotten
Yet Hamlet lives on – not forgotten!

(c) Poet in the woods 2014