Poetic Tragedies

Romeo and Juliet
Star-Crossed Lovers

Untimely Deaths

"O! she doth teach the torches to burn bright"
- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, 1.5

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet"
- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, 2.2

"Then I defy you, stars!"
- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, 5.1

"For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."
- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, 5.3

Star-Crossed Lovers:
Thwarted by a Malign Star
The stars are working against the relationship
Astrological Origin
Stemmed from the belief that the positions of the stars ruled over one's fate
Not always but often doomed from the start

"From forth the fatal loins of these two foes,
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life."
-William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, 5.6

Struggle in one's life builds character.
Art comes from suffering
Struggle can bring beautiful things to life.

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, and it could go no further. So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.

What the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives.

The choices that you make lead you down the path you are meant to take.