Hamlet - In a Nutshell

Most of my high school poetry isn't worth the paper it was written on, but in my senior year I became obsessed with Hamlet, and one line in particular - "I could be bounded up in a nut-shell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams." This poem resulted; I was reminded of it while exploring something made by other people inspired by Shakespeare.

At night, bad dreams lurk behind a casement of stars
in an overgrown garden to descend into your nutshell
and forever awaken you to the reality of life:

At night, Danish princes with bloodied swords and hands
and shirts and souls wander the corridors of Elisore
to find the rat behind the tapestry and dispatch of it:

At night, that rat is I, as I am the queen - shocked and dismayed
for there is the root of madness revealed in action
and there is a ghostly shadow hovering:

At night, primrose and rue are scattered by the hand
of a maid gone mad as she waders behind the scarlet prince
and his like uncle, trailing the caverns of sleep until dawn:

At night, when the maid lies sleeping in the bitter earth
and belated tears are shed by one mad prince, the world shifts
into a different arrangement, and eight useless husks lie dead:

and the nutshell cracks below dreams undreamed and things undone.
and the world inundates the core of meat. and carmine blood
spills from the crack to cover the garden with loam.

and the garden grows and feeds the young who will dream
their dreams on a moonlit night. and the blood beats in the ears
of those who survived the final death, and they think.

and time is lost to a time-lost hero and his tragedy of
unknown faces that watch the poison take effect and
unknown eyes that trace words written long ago under stars.

and the poetry of words spoken on the door of death
breathes poetry to other souls, hungry to hear, and another
voice is born to the wonders and horrors of the mind.

and Hamlet lays dying in the arms of his enduring friend.
and a noble enters to break this final act.
and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: Izzie's, Irene
Hair: Wasabi Pills, Cody
Eyes: .:Soul:., Oculos
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Ears: .:Soul:., Uni
Wings: Deviance, Sidhe
Body: SLink, Hands & Feet
Nails: A:S:S, Fairy Wings
Outfit: Nomi, Lilac Lolita (SaNaRe)
Shoes: Dilly Dolls, Marta Boots

Poses: Grafica
Location: LEA 17: The Play's the Thing
Windlight Settings: Sim Default
Water Settings: Sim Default

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping