Covid's 16th Century Sonnet
Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day,
And make me travel forth without my cloak,
To let base clouds o’ertake me in my way,
Hiding thy bravery in their rotten smoke?
‘Tis not enough that through the cloud thou break,
To dry the rain on my storm-beaten face,
For no man well of such a salve can speak,
That heals the wound, and cures not the disgrace:
Nor can thy shame give physic to my grief;
Though thou repent, yet I have still the loss:
The offender’s sorrow lends but weak relief
To him that bears the strong offence’s cross.
Ah! but those tears are pearl which thy love sheds,
And they are rich and ransom all ill deeds.
Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day
William Shakespeare
There are many ways to interpret Shakespeare’s Sonnet no. 34 but what it informs us of is the basic psychology of false promises. Of course, the main plot here is the broken promise of Youth that has aggrieved the Narrator.
But a modern day interpretation could be the false promises of our governments, collectively captured by deceit.
Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day,
And make me travel forth without my cloak,
To let base clouds o’ertake me in my way,
How many false promises, failed against the evidence, delivered time after time after time.
‘Tis not enough that through the cloud thou break,
To dry the rain on my storm-beaten face,
For no man well of such a salve can speak,
That heals the wound, and cures not the disgrace:
And even when a degree of emotional honesty comes forth, it doesn’t undo what was done.
But Shakespeare ends his Sonnet with these two lines.
Ah! but those tears are pearl which thy love sheds,
And they are rich and ransom all ill deeds.
All will be Ok, because the tears of Youth pay the ransom for the wrong doing.
I think here, of all the many Mea Culpas:
And literally Tears.
In Shakespeare’s world, those tears would be genuine and pay the ransom for the wrong doing but only one above is shedding tears in our world - is she genuine?
Unlike Shakespeare’s Sonnet, the current deceit continues. We are repeating the cycle.
Nor can thy shame give physic to my grief;
Though thou repent, yet I have still the loss:
The offender’s sorrow lends but weak relief
To him that bears the strong offence’s cross.
Look around you…look around the world. Look at the loss since this play of plays began.
For most people on the planet, the economic and psychological harm experienced during the past 19 months was not the result of the pandemic per se, but of emergency-order restrictions governments imposed on them and justified as public health measures. In the Global North, such costly efforts did little more than delay the inevitable spread of COVID-19 while transferring wealth into the hands of Big Tech oligarchs who constitute the pandemic’s real “winners.”
Just two days before the March 2020 lockdown, many transportation services in India ground to a halt, stranding and starving thousands of people at a time when strict stay-at-home rules were declared.
And what of those that travelled forth without their cloak believing all would be well if they took the Jab; waited just 2 weeks to flatten the curve; and tragically said their last goodbyes to loved ones behind a pane of glass?
Will the tears of tyranny be enough to convince them to continue on that journey?
How hard it is for those that that can see through the deceit, to understand that Yes many will continue that journey. But on that journey they are becoming wearier….and the lies becoming more transparent….and as the grip on power over them becomes looser, more are beginning to take a different path.
Because, as Dr. King so eloquently said, as he addressed those that gathered at the State Capitol in Montgomery, Alabama in 1965.
The Arc of the Moral Universe Is Long, But It Bends Toward Justice
And, as we end this discussion, we must remember that some then, felt desperate in their struggle. They felt alone. They felt there was no hope. The powers against them were too big.
History told a different story, though: they were the many….they were the powerful….they were the hope….that would go on to win their struggle. They just didn’t know it then.
Some thought Dr. King was just speaking to that time and place. But he was a man of great vision, he knew the struggle that Humanity faced. His words are eternal: he was speaking to the world then; and he is speaking to us now….
Corrupt governments don’t act the way they do- take Australia for example - unless they are afraid of something. We should ask the question:
What are they afraid of?
Look to history for the answer: Their time is running out. Ours is just beginning.