Symbolism

                                                                        Orphelia  by Odilon Redon
Picture Credit: Courtesy of Tess' Magpie

To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them?    Shakespeare's Hamlet Act 3 Scene1

Ophelia among the flowers

Drowned of sorrows benign

Lamenting loss of her infatuation

Of Hamlet’s rejection of her love

Sincerely  expressed but spurned

But intrigues within the palace

Of new King Claudius now a step-father

Having hurriedly married Queen Gertrude his mother

Borne of suspicion on the late King’s death

An Apparition goading to avenge the demise

To be, or not to be: that is the question

In soliloquy deranged of mentality, contemplating suicide

Was it a make-believe or was it real?

Continue to live and suffer life’s consequences

Or to die expecting dreams of peace

Caused by ability to balance

As yet not rightly determined

Redon in readiness brilliantly portrayed

Of Ophelia among striking colors of purple, red

green and blue, of berries lilacs and violets

Now lavishly offered to the world

Within an accepted form of Symbolism

Written for Tess Kincaid's Magpie #124 and Real Toad's Open Link Night