The Winning Move. Poem by Ravi Panamanna

Life is not a Tempest
Nor a Mid Summer Night's Dream.
It is not A Winter's Tale
Nor a drama to play As You Like It.

All's Well that Ends Well,
Life is a Comedy of Errors.
We have Great Expectations
We do dream of Paradise Regained.

We move our pieces Measure for Measure.
Alas! In the process Love's Labour's Lost.
We eat the Grapes of Wrath
And life seems to be War and Peace.

Sitting Under the Greenwood Tree
It is all An Enchanted Kiss
It is all A Tempered Wind,
And we forget The Elegy Written in a country church-yard.

Life is an Old Curiosity Shop,
Our past is our shadow.
Again, it is the same old story-
The Old man and the Sea,
The Higher Pragmatism,
The Lonesome Road,

And who finally wins? -
Oliver Twists or the Merchant of the Venice?

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Shakespeare -Tempest, Mid-summer Night’s dream, A winter’s Tale, As you like it, All’s well that ends well, Comedy of errors, Measure for measure, Love’s labour’s lost, Merchant of Venice-

Dickens- Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Old curiosity shop.

Milton- Paradise Regained.

Tolstoy- War and Peace.

Steinbeck- The grapes of wrath.

Hardy- Under the greenwood tree.

Thomas Gray – Elegy written in a country church-yard.

O Henry- An enchanted kiss, A tempered wind, The higher pragmatism, The lonesome road.

Hemingway- The old man and the sea.