Prologue: Shakespeare's Wages, Marvin Bell 7
PART I: The Sonnets
Symmetron: You and Brother Will, Zach Rogow ii
from Shaken, Ellen McGrath Smith 12
Making a Love Poem, Leonard Nathan I5
Shall I Compare Thee ... ? Anthony Lombardy 16
Goodsonnet,J. D. Smith 17
Ragged Sonnet: When in a Deep Depression, Leonard Nathan 18
Ragged Sonnet: So Shall I Live, Leonard Nathan 19
To Love That Well, Janice Townley Moore 20
Dim Lady, Harryette Mullen 21
My Poetess' Eyes, Katherine Cottle 22
The Mall, William John Watkins 23
Shakespearean Sonnet, R. S. Gwynn 24
Interlude: My Students, Ron Koertge 25
PART II: The Comedies
Songs for the Seasons: A Distant Collaboration, Michael B. Stillman 29
Midsummer's Eve, Deborah Leiter 32
Bottom's Dream, Leon Stokesbury 33
What Bottom Said When He Came Home, Eva Hooker 35
Portia, Kathleen Kirk 37
Shylock,J. B. Mulligan 39
Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind, Peter Meinke 40
Seven Ages of Man, J. D. Smith 42
Jaques Lured by Audrey, Leon Stokesbury 43
The Good Duke Speaks, Gilbert Allen 44
Feste and the Fence Post, Daniel Williams 46
The Catch, Sandy Feinstein 47
Viola, to Olivia, Mary Makofske 48
Viola Recalls, Chris Terrio 49
Hungry as the Sea, Melanie Kenny 50
Interlude: Shakespeare as a Waiter, BJ Ward 51
PART II: The Tragedies (and Histories)
Lavinia, Kathleen Kirk 55
The Two Princes, Michael B. Stillman 56
The Exhaled, Katherine Swiggart 58
On First Reading Romeo and Juliet, Diane Lockward 60
Teaching Shakespeare, Tania Runyan 61
The Film Version, Barry Spacks 62
Komeo & Juliet, Sherod Santos 63
Act One, Danusha Lameris de Garza 64
Romeo Is Dead, H. Palmer Hall 65
Falstaff's Dream, Jackson Wheeler 67
Daily Grind, BJ Ward 68
Reading Othello and Watching a Girl Skip Rope, Jennifer Hill Kaucher 69
I Took by the Throat the Circumcised Dog, Chad Davidson 70
Literature ioo, Carmen Germain 71
lago, Arthur Powers 72
lago, the Poet, J. P. Dancing Bear 73
lago to His Torturers, R. S. Gwynn 74
lago,Julian Bernick 75
Interlude, Rachel Beck 76
Epilogue for Emilia, Rachel Beck 77
Maybe Desdemona, Dan Johnson 78
How Mother Courage Saves Desdemona, Jeanne Murray Walker 79
Owls at the Shakespeare Festival, William Stafford 81
Understanding King Lear, Stephen Corey 82
Three Songs for King Leir, Ann Lauinger 83
The Ordeal of Love, Joan Raymund 85
Speak Again, Brian Staveley 86
When Everything Is Goneril, Lee Patton 87
For Gloucester on Being Newly Blind, Michelle LaBarre 88
Lear Expands His Last Words to Cordelia, Sheryl Cornett 89
Lear Drives His Rambler across Laurel Mountain, Charles Clifton 90
Ottava Rima: Lear, Cecilia Woloch 92
Stormy Lear, Ken Pobo 93
Lines on Retirement, after Reading Lear, David Wright 94
The Role of a Lifetime, Floyd Skloot 95
Lady Macbeth, Afterward, Edwin Romond 96
The Ditch, Lee Upton 97
Mark Antony's Valentine, Steven Marx 98
Cleopatra, Adrianne Marcus 99
Interlude: As If, Jim Peterson ior
PART IV: Hamlet
On the Mississippi, James Applewhite os5
Noreen, Peter Meinke io6
Diapers for My Father, Alice Friman 107
Tendered, Sandy Feinstein io8
Sounds of the Resurrected Dead Man's Footsteps (#i), Marvin Bell Iog
For Hamlet, Peter Cooley no
Helsinore, Denmark, Maurya Simon mi
Cancer Diagnosis, Marjorie Maddox 12
Reynaldo in Paris, Leon Stokesbury 114
Horatios Philosophy, R. S. Gwynn uI5
Horatio, Nan Cohen 117
The First Player's Monologue, Richard Hedderman 119
Laurence Olivier's Hamlet, David Oliveira 121
Nothing in Art,J. Kates 122
Queen Gertrude's Soliloquy, Gail White 123
Gertrude to Hamlet, Lee Upton 124
Hambone Two Tongue, D. C. Berry 125
Hamlet Meets Frankenstein, Kevin Griffith 126
This Is What Happens When You Let Hamlet Play Quarterback,
Jack Conway 127
Hamlet at the Paris Aerobleu, Ryan G. Van Cleave 128
Hamlet to Ophelia, Peter Cummings 129
Not Ophelia, Allison Joseph 130
Ophelia Writes Home, William Greenway 131
Ophelia in Utah, Kathleen Lynch 132
Ophelia Speaks, Tracy S. Youngblom 133
Ophelia, Richard Hedderman 134
Ophelias Rant before She's Heavy with Drink, Leilani Hall 135
Delacroix's Version, Kirsten Dierking 136
Ophelia on a Graveled Garden Walk in Purgatory,
Ryan G. Van Cleave 137
Ophelia, Susan Terris 138
Snowdrops and Summer Snowflakes, Drooping, Reginald Shepherd 139
Ophelia, in Winter, Judith H. Montgomery 140
Ophelia, Alice Friman 141
As Birds in Rain, Kirsten Kaschock 143
Running Loose around the Castle, Lee McCarthy 144
The Failure of Language, Elon G. Eidenier I45
Ophelia, Michael B. Stillman 146
Interlude: Shakespeare's Eyebrows, Sylvia Adams 147
PART V: The Romances
Reading Pericles in New London, Alfred Corn s15
Pericles, Prince of Tyre: A Commentary, Reginald Shepherd I53
Fear No More, David Case 157
Perdita's Song, Annie Finch 158
Exit, Pursued by a Bear, Kathleen Kirk is5
At The Tempest with a Pregnant Wife, Charles Harper Webb 16o
The Tempest, Stephen Corey 162
Prospero, Michael B. Stillman 163
Caliban, J. P. Dancing Bear 165
A Heart-Shaped Island,J. P. Dancing Bear 166
Miranda, Kathleen Kirk 167
Ariel, Eva Hooker 168