Polonius comes to leartes to say goodbye before he leaves to France. Tells him to not get into fights,
After leartes leaves he warns ophelia of marrying Hamlet since polonius believes that he can not controll himself
He warns her that he is only attracted to her and does not want to marry her.
The scene starts with two guards Barnardo and Francisco guarding the castle in a country preparing for war. Telling an unknown person to reveal themselves “stand and unfold yourself.”
They are joined by horatio and marcellus who are allied to them. They discuss a ghost which apparently appears in the area at night.
When the ghost appears it reminds barnardo of the dead king.
This gets the group to think why there is war which is soon explained by horatio. The story of Hamlet winining with the fortinbras of Norway and gaining their land is told.
Then the ghost appears and ho ratio is eager to talk to it so he finds out if the ghost knows the future of this land. But the ghost goes away because dat comes.
I remember the feeling. Walking on the weak grass pathway. In my thick winter coat that protected me from the sharp cold wind. The leafs were all kinds of colours. From yellow to purple. The trees were naked. Lined up , leaving a clear gap in the middle. I saw more colours even in the grass. Patches of green were so rare. Everything was orange. Although the sky was clear, it wasn’t bright. The sun was a dim lamp in the blue background. It was hanging ready to fall . The branches had no leafs. You could see all the crows that sit on the branches. Heard all the sounds that the birds made within a long radius from this place. The smell of rotting plants was hunting . It was omnipresent. It did not take a long time to notice the quiet sound of river flowing. As I walked down the alley it became more present. In between the trees I see the shine of the small stream. The grass and weeds growing on both sides have found an ideal mild habitat to develop in. There were small stones that have deep green moss covering the top. Leafs floating atop the water in the direction of the flow. All colours, decorating the clear stream. In between you can see the riverbed, small fishes that move along without distracting the sand on the ground. Stems of plants poked out of the water. Flowers shrivelling off, death that created a piece of art. The sky was getting darker and darker but it was only 19:00. The energy was absent. Everything felt weak as if it had no point in life and wanted to die slowly listening the whirling wind . I felt cold, and started heading home.
I remember that feeling. Walking on the thick deep green grass. Wanting to take of my shirt due to the unbearable heat of the sun’s rays. The trees were thick with leafs and needles. Lined up in two lanes with almost no space in between. Everything was green. I could see beams of light in between the branches as well as rare patches of bright blue . The sky was blue, without a single white cloud blocking the blazing sun that was drying up everything that was not in the shade. You could have seen all those animals that were lurking behind the trees. There were all kinds of colourful birds in the branches and on the ground there were a 1000 squirrels running about carrying nuts to their shelters, getting ready for the autumn. The sound of birds chirping happily and animals talking to each other was everywhere. It took some time to hear the powerful flow of water running behind the trees on my left. As I got closer it became more and more obvious. I went through the gap, trying to avoid a branch hitting my face to witness what was behind the sound. The weeds covered both of the river banks. Protecting the ground from the monstrous current that it was holding back. There were some stones glittering in the water, that splashed to make them wet, some were completely submerged. There were tons of fish swimming through the liquid, lots of birds flying about. As I walked along I found people who decided to cool themselves from the scorching sun in the relaxing cold of the water. I couldn’t have resisted the urge to swim, it looked so inviting. It was 19:00 the sun was still terrorizing the environment, giving life and destroying the flora of this ecosystem. The choice to refrigerate myself in the stream was one of the best choices I ever made.
The poem makes me feel unhappy. The theme is about dieing slowly and in big numbers which is not often noticed by many people and is seen as normal. Like leafs falling in autumn and snow flakes in winter, seen like nature. During the autumn the leafs drop because they are weak, they drop because the wind is strong and it causes them to drop. But on a still afternoon the leafs will not fall. This makes me think that the poem says that they do not have to die, Slain by no wind of age or pestilence, killing the worlds beauty and making it dull . although the poem is slow it is powerfull and makes a deep inpact on me.
During the first world war people fell like leafs from trees. For no reason, because the author (Margaret Postgate Cole) is a pacifist she does not believe in war. She believes that there should be no war and the people should not die. Which is what this poem is saying.
The poem uses multiple metaphors to make connections to the setting and things that do not have to die, like leaves. The poem is about people but people are not mentioned once, it is about war but instead the author uses words like autumn. A war is a time of death for people and so is autumn a time of death to the beautifull leaves on the trees.
The poem makes me feel sad. And as if i expected something to happen but it did not because the character could have woke up but he did not. I think the poem should sound quiet and slow, not fast because it features words like gently. The poem is based around the first world war where soliders died of cold in the freezing winter 1917 in the trenches. The poem wonders why are things alive if they die in the end. Rhyme is used as a language effect to make it sound better. Use of rhetorical questions to emphesise the question the poem asks “why live in the first place?”