This year, as part of our education program’s World Theatre Project, 6th grader Laith Zuaiter and his classmates studied the plot, character and language of Shakespeare’s Othello. Led by teaching artist Erin McCready, they explored in-depth how Shakespeare’s language expresses the intense emotions of the characters.
For homework, the students were asked to choose one moment of a character’s journey and use heightened language to create a poem about that moment. Laith chose to write his from Othello’s point of view after Othello is told of Desdemona’s innocence and Iago’s treachery at the end of the play.
Down I laid to list the sad tuned tale
By Laith Zuaiter
6th grade, New Voices School of Academic and Creative Arts, Brooklyn
Down I laid to list the sad tuned tale
As I listened to her trembling voice in sorrow
Tears dripping from eye to eye
The truth has been spoken face to face
And as may it not seem if love is still true
The day is still young, the truth has been spoken
Everything pounds and makes you
Feel betrayed
The earth is dust
No one knows the truth anymore but one
Feelings collide and mash together
While betrayal and hatred roams over
Life is a secret that is kept from everyone