Romeo and Juliet

I will admit it. When we read Romeo and Juliet in middle school or high school or whenever it was we read it...I skimmed. Partially it was because at 16 I was so over poetry/anything rhyming. Partly it was because I had recently discovered that I didn't need to read the books, I just needed to argue with EVERYTHING the teacher said and she would take that as a sign that I was thinking outside the box. Thanks Mrs. Bentley! She made me read aloud from Beowulf once, I think, and that's when my grudge against her (slash against reading for her class) solidified. And I had her for two years in a row. A lot of literature got skimmed.

Thankfully last week I picked up a book by Robin Maxwell called 'O, Juliet', which is a retelling of Shakespeare's classic, set in Florence in the time of the Medici. After devouring her book, I got on Netflix and watched Baz Luhrmann's 1996 (OMG SO LONG AGO) version of Romeo + Juliet. Oh, Leo. Oh, Clare. I'm pretty sure we watched this movie in the aforementioned English class, after we read the play. But this was the first time I'd seen it since, and it was absolutely beautiful. Eight years later I can truly appreciate the movie. Leo and Clare seem so incredibly young - a fact that didn't come through the first time, since I was just as young, if not younger. But this time I see the sweet innocence in Leo's smile, the wonder in Clare Danes' big, green eyes. It made all the difference to me.

So now I appreciate Romeo and Juliet. Their plight, their love, their story. R+J now rank up their with my other favorite couple, Tristan and Isolde. Star-crossed lovers who sacrifice everything for each other. Love at first sight. Knowing that the one thing you want is the one thing you cant have. The feeling you get when your heart belongs not to you but to another, and how delicate and fragile it makes you feel, especially when you know you carry their heart inside your own body. Unrequited love.

The only question I have is this: Romeo, Romeo...wherefore art thou, Romeo?