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On the RSC's Merchant of Venice

What endures after the applause?

Despite the carnage and brutality

A simple flame of hope hints at accords,

Renewals and the possibility

That Love will find a way out of the hell

Of human desolation which is Lear.

But all the wealth of Belmont cannot quell

The appetite for profit and the sneer

Of anti-Semitism - even though

Shylock is as culpable as all

The champagne Christians who won't dare to show

Unselfishness though it prevent their fall.

          While suffering can serve to raise our sight

          Greed's mirror only cuts us from the light.

Brian Hick May 2011

©copyright Sally Hick 16.6.23