Bard in the Botanics

I have seen Henry the VIII at The Globe
And Julius Caesar in The Lyceum,
R & J inside Rossyln Chapel
And in Paris, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

In Melbourne mused at The Merchant Of Venice,
In Barcelona, The Taming Of The Shrew,
Caught a fiery Tempest at the New York Met
And in Dublin a divine Much Ado.

But of these many theatres and stages
There is a place that stands out o’er them all,
Where I first heard Desdemona crying
And waltzed my very first Capulet Ball.

Over old Botanical West End way
Where I watched & wept at King Lear grow old,
In the gorgeous green garden’s of Glasgow
A fine Comedy Of Errors did unfold.

Where I heard Hamlet ponder the question,
The rhetorical, To be or not to be,
And as the skies opened above our heads
The players carried on bravely through Act III.

There is nothing like breathing the open air
As a soliloquy lights up the dark,
Tonight We Are Young, the show must go on,
May there always be Shakespeare in the Park.