My Poem From William Shakespeare's As You Like It Poem by Gayathri Seetharam

My Poem from William Shakespeare's As You Like It
-Gayathri B. Seetharam
An apt choice for a title is my instinctive observation
For I would like to bring out a feature of Canada from my selection of phrases
And Canada, as you and I like it, has to be lauded for its beautiful and universal health care system
And I enjoy the benefits of Ontario Health Insurance Plan
And I must also make mention of Employment Insurance (EI)
Which has many claimants to it in these times of COVID-19 virus pandemic
And I enjoyed the benefits of the latter in part 2002 and part 2003
But I must add that I was not granted EI for my second job loss;

My first excerpt: Marry, I prithee, do, to make sport withal: but love no man in good earnest, nor no further in sport neither, than with safety of a pure blush thou mayst in honour come off again.
In analysis of this dialogue by Celia to Rosalind, the RSC Shakespeare
Has used the present day connotation, ‘of come', as in have an orgasm,
And I say that this is a most invigorating and delightful pastime when I am not busy working
Or with my beloved family members and so on and so forth
Personally, I think, that to spare a lady's blushes, I must say
That it is healthy advice but a bit catty to say not to love a man in good earnest
But sound advice to say not to toy with his emotions
And the friend is being a friend by saying
That a pure blush will let her love again;

To say that the author of the analysis in the RSC Shakespeare may have been correct,
I looked up a Victorian dictionary which says that a coming wench is a forward wench
And being a feminist Canadian woman who had these roots developed from her previous Indian citizenship,
I strongly object to the fact that men were preposterous in presuming that
To have an orgasm was solely saved for the male sex
And I must ask the PM of Canada, Justin Trudeau, what his thoughts on this are;

My second excerpt: Let us sit and mock the good housewife Fortune from her wheel, that her gifts may henceforth be bestowed equally.
In connection with this dialogue, the RSC Shakespeare informed me that
Fortune was the blind woman turning a wheel
And I think that it implies a woman who is at times blind to the
Virtues and faults of the individual and does bless indiscriminately
And surely, the world including Canada does not need to suffer at the hands of the
Capricious Lady Luck and the crisis of the corona virus pandemic must end soon;

My third excerpt: CELIA: No? When Nature hath made a fair creature, may she not by Fortune fall into the fire? Though Nature hath given us wit to flout at Fortune, hath not Fortune sent in this fool to cut off the argument?
ROSALIND: Indeed, there is Fortune too hard for Nature, when Fortune makes Nature's natural the cutter-off of Nature's wit.
Dear Reader, Shakespeare was a poor artist, it is evident
But it is a beautiful thought to say that Nature has given us wit to flout at fortune,
And I know that Canada must reduce its deficit but
The other G-7 and G-20 countries are not as blessed with Nature's wit
But we cannot flout at Fortune for although she does reward our wit,
She is also at times, not as generous;

Orlando says that Virtue is no hornmaker
And I must observe that this is an expression used in Kannada, a South Indian language,
And is not an oft used expression in English
And can perhaps, be attributed to French
I like the expression which is akin to saying that
Nobody gets brownie points for being good
And it has its reward in itself
And once again, I am glad that PM Justin Trudeau
During the beginning of his first term in Jan 2016,
Welcomed 25,000 Syrian refugees into Canada;

I shall digress to a personal note in both my career and personal life
For as all Canadians, I do work hard and the end of Shakespeare's As You Like It,
Has the marriage of Rosalind and Orlando
And it is a part of the dialogue:
….If truth holds true contents…….
….Wedding is great Juno's crown, O blessèd bond of board and bed…..
Both are true about me
In that the former has myself on the defensive
From a piece of falsehood secretly confided to my work supervisor
And dates back to the time of me being employed by Iogen Corporation in Ottawa,
AND the latter has me on the defensive as a feminist engineer-writer-artist
But I say, Thank you to God;

My last excerpt: CELIA
O wonderful, wonderful, and most wonderful
wonderful! and yet again wonderful, and after that,
out of all hooping!
ROSALIND
Good my complexion! dost thou think, though I am
caparisoned like a man, I have a doublet and hose in
my disposition? ..............................
Resuming as myself, your poet, I say that Celia's dialogue
Is true of life in both Canada and my former country, India,
And I momentarily grieve that India's secular roots are being threatened
But the saving grace is that it is a democracy as Canada and the USA are;

I must move to Rosalind's dialogue where she says
That she is attired in a doublet and a hose, a man's Victorian shirt and a pair of tights,
And this may have been the origin of the Canadianism/Americanisms, hosie and hoser
For those of you in the dark, a hosie is a Canadian,
And a hoser is an American.

Acknowledgements:
1. My husband's old friend
2. The internet
3.Brandy Saturley for her image, Keep on Dreamin'