Welcome back to The Daily Poem, a podcast from Goldberry Studios.

I'm Sean Johnson, and today is Tuesday, September 17th, 2024.

And it is the birthday of my daughter, Rosalind.

So, in honor of the occasion, I've selected a passage from Shakespeare's King Lear,

Act 5, Scene 3. The old Lear, who through his pride and his

folly, had been estranged from his daughter Cordelia, has just recently been reunited with her,

and though they are now being sent to prison by their enemies, including his two wicked daughters, Reagan and Goneril.

He explains in this speech that he cares little for that fate or about that fate

because of the great consolation he finds in the company of this one faithful daughter.

Here is Lear in King Lear Act 5, Scene 3.

Come, let's away to prison. We two alone will sing like birds in the cage. When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down and ask of thee forgiveness. So we'll live and pray and sing, and tell old

stories and laugh at gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues, talk of court news, and we'll talk

with them too. Who loses and who wins? Who's in, who's out? And take upon us the mystery of things,

as if we were God's spies.

And will wear out in a wall to prison packs and sects of great ones that ebb and flow by the moon.

Upon such sacrifices my Cordelia that gods themselves throw incense. Have I caught thee?

He that parts us shall bring a brand from heaven and fire us thence like foxes. Wipe thine eyes. The good years shall devour them, flesh and fell,

ere they shall make us weep, we'll seem starved first.

If you're familiar with the surrounding context of the play or even just familiar with the categorization of King Lear as a tragic play, then this moment may seem a bleak one. Spoilers are forthcoming.

So if you have not yet read this 400-year-old play, what are you doing with your life? Go now. Read King Lear.

Watch King Lear performed. But in the meantime, you are going to hear a discussion of the end of the story.

So prepare yourself.

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