The House Of Experience Poem by Frank Avon
The House Of Experience
'there's a divinity
that shapes our ends
rough-hew them
how we will'
Shakespeare, Hamlet, V.ii
What we saw
let us know
it was beautiful.
What we didn't see
what we couldn't know:
it was rotting beneath.
We always need to see
what we don't see
what we can't know.
So we must know
that what we see
what we believe
may not be so.
It's humbling
but not humiliating;
it's disappointing
but not devastating.
To be humble,
but not sink too low;
to have high expectations,
but not be too sure
may be the key to maturity,
the way of Prudence,
may be a basis for security,
the hallowed ray of Providence.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
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5/5/2024 12:28:06 PM # 1.0.0.1119
Since I was a teenager, meeting Hamlet for the first time, a life-long friend, I have loved the lines you quote as an epigraph. Your poem is informed by these words, and also I feel the prose passage soon after in which Hamlet rejects augury and puts his faith in THE READINESS IS ALL. If I were still teaching HAMLET, always a wonderful experience, I would read your poem to show students how an alert, committed reader can build on Shakespeare's to nudge his/her life forward with this creative spirit, (My ex-wife and I had a similar experience with our first home. I'm glad you can still love what you loved despite this setback,)