Comfort Zone Challenge - Day 4

I've never been very comfortable with Shakespeare.  I feel uncultured for even thinking such a thought, but it's true!  I know that he is a genius, and that his writing has been valued and loved for centuries for a reason.  I want to like it, but reading Shakespeare has always been for me a little like eating Brussel Sprouts...I know they're good for me, I know I should like them, but I just don't.

Feeling pretty certain that my disinterest in Shakespeare exists mostly because I haven't given him enough of a chance, I decided to give my literary comfort zone a stretch, and try again to enjoy reading Shakespeare.

I woke up excessively early, (also outside of my comfort zone), and found the old, faded blue, copy of  Macbeth, that has been sitting on my book shelf looking dignified for 15 or so years, but almost never read, and a small book of poetry.   I started by reading a few of the more famous of Shakespeare's sonnets that I remembered reading  and enjoying when I first bought the book of poetry.

 "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"

"Like to the lark at break of day arising..."

 "Love is not love which alters when alteration finds..."

I guess I did already have some appreciation for Shakespeare!  Shakespeare undeniably had a gift for words that is unequaled.

Sonnets are surely however, the milk of Shakespeare works.  I needed to brave the meat of his works, and attempt to read a play!  For the next hour I studied Macbeth.  I use the word "study", because there is no such thing as light reading, when it comes to Shakespeare.  I found myself flipping back to the list of characters more than once, to identify the speaker, reading and rereading passages to figure out the meaning, and often referring to the word definitions at the bottom of the page.  After an hour, I was exhausted...exhausted in a happy, cultured, kind of way.

I will probably not keep my copy of Macbeth on my nightstand, but I did take it off the shelf.  I am slowly sloughing off my Shakesperian ignorance, and one beautifully written line at a time, learning to truly appreciate the skill of this great writer.

Today's a new day, let's make it purposeful!
Kara