I’m going to try and keep this brief,
because I could write an essay on this. Shakespeare was my very first
Literature love. I remember going to my nans local library looking for
something different. I wanted something challenging but accessible to me as a
child and wandered around that small library for ages (I’m not sure it’s still
there anymore). Most people talk about first hearing the story of Romeo & Juliet, but the first piece
of Shakespeare I sat down and read was actually a poem: ‘A Lover’s Complaint’. I can’t quite remember the title of the book
it was in, but it was a collection of “forgotten” poems; indeed, I’m not
entirely sure most people knew Shakespeare wrote
poems!
‘A
Lover’s Complaint’ is about a young woman full of
woe due to losing her love, and feeling lost. Below is my favourite stanza:
" ‘Father’, she says ‘though in me you
behold
The injury of many a blasting hour,
Let it not tell your judgment I am old;
Not age, but in sorrow, over me hath power.
I might as yet have been a spreading
flower,
Fresh to myself, if I had self-applied
Love to myself, and to no love beside.’ "
I remember
thinking how odd it was for someone so young to be so defeatist, so incapable
of finding any light in her tortuous darkness. She goes on to admit she will
soon be a fool again and fall in love with someone she knows will break her
heart; and I wondered why she wasn’t stronger….of course being older, I now fully understand the torment of love lost.
That’s the reason I feel in love with
Shakespeare. I didn’t always like the way he portrayed women, but his writing
kept (and still keeps) me engrossed, made me think and was always worthy of
debate – I hadn’t read anything that remotely made me feel that way, before
Shakespeare.
With that, you can imagine how deliriously
happy I was to head to Shakespeare & Co Bookshop, Paris. I actually got
teary-eyed as we got closer and closer to it, and I immediately took my phone
out to take pictures.
Now, you’re not actually allowed to take
pictures inside, but bearing in mind what I have written above, I couldn’t not take pictures inside! These will not
win any awards – they are not particularly special to look at, they are not
edited in any way and most are out of focus; but it’s my love for this writer
that makes these photos so special to me. This is the only authentic old
school, bookshop dedicated to the great man and I love these mementos I took
away with me…
Equipment: iPhone. I think when you are in a place where you're not allowed to take pictures, the last thing you want to do is bring out your huge camera and enable flash!
Editing: None
Equipment: iPhone. I think when you are in a place where you're not allowed to take pictures, the last thing you want to do is bring out your huge camera and enable flash!
Editing: None
