Do you think that this editor would forget THEE William Shakespeare’s birthday? Of course not; what kind of schoolteacher/editor would I be if I didn’t share some sonnets to commemorate April 23? 

It’s crazy to even attempt to imagine a world without Shakespeare and his body of work. What would English classes look like without him? They’d probably be filled with ChatGPT-created worksheet packets created by our robot overlords to teach future generations just enough vocabulary and syntax to help get their heads around building iPhones from scratch for $5 per hour, or whatever other amazing manufacturing jobs we “get back” from China.

But enough about current events.

Sonnet 18 William Shakespeare 

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date; Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm’d; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st; Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Sonnet 57 William Shakespeare 

Being your slave, what should I do but tend Upon the hours and times of your desire?

I have no precious time at all to spend, Nor services to do, till you require. Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you.

Nor think the bitterness of absence sour When you have bid your servant once adieu; Nor dare I question with my jealous thought Where you may be, or your affairs suppose, But like a sad slave, stay and think of nought, Save, where you are how happy you make those.

So true a fool is love that in your will Though you do anything, he thinks no ill.

Andrea Gutierrez is the managing editor of the Bryan County News. Unsurprisingly, English Literature was her favorite subject in school. Or second-favorite, if you count lunch.