O, for a Muse of Fire!

a writing prompt for you + August Writing Hour

Welcome to Writing in Company. This is a community for you, whatever your experience with writing. It’s an invitation to write about what matters—grief, gratitude, grace, and more. Each week I share some words and a writing prompt, meant to be jumping-off points. Use the prompts however you like—to journal, to draft thoughts for your own writing project, as meditation or prayer ideas, or for another creative endeavor. You can always look back through the archive for more ideas. Grab your pen and paper, and let your words loose on the page.

It’s a particular kind of joy to watch someone you love do something they love. This month I’ve been able to see my daughter perform in Henry V with Asheville’s Montford Park Players, North Carolina’s longest running Shakespeare theatre company. Each summer weekend they perform FREE Shakespeare outdoors on an impressive set in a neighborhood park. People bring their lawn chairs, picnics, dogs, and vibes. Highly recommend.¹

I’d be impressed with the entire cast, most of whom play multiple parts, even if I weren’t related to the gorgeous girl playing Katherine. Her lines are mostly in French and she easily manages to be funny, innocent, regal, and wise. And that’s just when she’s Katherine. Her other role is as part of a Greek-like chorus that helps the audience follow the action as it moves through time and from England to France and back again.

I like to think I know a little about Shakespeare. I read some in high school naturally, but we also performed The Tempest under the trees outdoors, and I have a collection of his plays I won with a theatre award. I almost got the part of Juliet once. I took a whole Shakespeare class in college, and got to visit Stratford-upon-Avon while studying abroad. (That’s it. That’s the extent of my Shakespeare knowledge….) Even so, Henry V is not a play I knew well.

But like with so many of the bard’s works there are familiar lines in it, and we might not even realize that’s where they began.

memorable lines from Henry V

• “O, for a muse of fire, that would ascend
  The brightest heaven of invention,
  A kingdom for a stage, princes to act
  And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!”

• “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more,
  Or close the wall up with our English dead.”

• “The game's afoot:
  Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
  Cry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George!’”

• “From this day to the ending of the world,
  But we in it shall be remembered-
  We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
  For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
  Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
  This day shall gentle his condition;
  And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
  Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
  And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
  That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.”

and these:

• “Men of few words are the best men."

• “God shall be my hope, my stay, my guide and lantern to my feet.”

• “Every subject's duty is the king's; but every subject's soul is his own.”

• “I think the king is but a man, as I am: the violet smells to him as it doth to me.”

• “There is occasions and causes why and wherefore in all things.”

• “God, the best maker of all marriages, combine your hearts in one.”

a writing prompt from Shakespeare

So, you band of brothers/sisters/siblings/friends—once more into the breach of writing about what matters! The game's afoot: follow your spirit, and call upon the muse of fire that lives in you—in your memories and your imagination.

Find a line or idea from Henry V above that tickles something, and nudges a start to your writing. Or begin with something else about Shakespeare, or about watching someone you love do something they love.

You don’t have to write a sonnet or anything your Shakespeare-loving English teacher will see or grade. It’s just for you. Enjoy.

August Writing Hour - Saturday, Aug 24 | 4-5 pm Eastern

My next live writing hour on Zoom for paid subscribers is two Saturdays away. If you want to write in company with others, you are welcome to join in. You can upgrade your subscription for a month ($7) just to try it. A separate email to paid subscribers will go out with the link, or you can find it on my Substack tab called Writing Hours. Let’s write together.

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My writing group of bereaved mothers once gave a copy of our book Farther Along to this iconic bookstore in Paris. Hoping it made its way to whomever needed it. Photo by mana5280 on Unsplash

1. This summer the company is serving up the entire history cycle of Shakespeare’s Wars of the Roses plays—Edward II, Richard II, Henry IV 1 + 2, Henry V, Henry VI 1, 2 + 3, and Richard III. Apparently no other Shakespeare company in the world has done them all in one season.