When the World Forgets Its Way (Modern Shakespeare Spoken Word)
When the World Forgets Its Way
(Modern Old-Shakespeare English)
O thou troubled Age, how far hast thou strayed from thine own shadow!
Men walk with gilded tongues and hollow hearts,
their hands full of promise, their deeds full of smoke.
Gold hath become their gospel, and pride their daily bread;
and thus they kneel before idols wrought of their own desiring.
The streets are loud with the boasting of fools,
yet silent where wisdom once made her dwelling.
Justice, once a queen, now wandereth cloaked and trembling,
for none will lift their eyes to greet her.
In the marketplace of souls, virtue is weighed like common grain,
and sold to whosoever bringeth the fattest purse.
O people, fashioned of dust yet dreaming of crowns,
what tempest hath driven thee from the noble path?
Thou hast traded thine honour for fleeting gain,
and left thy conscience begging at the door.
Yea, even the heavens seem to avert their gaze,
for the earth is drunk on its own corruption.
Yet somewhere in the quiet corners of the world,
a faint spark endureth —
a memory of gentler days,
when truth was not a stranger
and hearts beat not for plunder but for purpose.
Should that spark be tended, even now might dawn return;
but if it perish, then shall mankind wander
as exiles in their own kingdom.