Pacifist Viking has decided to read all of Shakespeare’s plays in the next year. “Hamlet” was first; check out this excellent post on why the play endures, at the Costanza Book Club (a great blog, btw). One reason is language:

The plot is familiar, and the emotional impact may be lost, but the language endures and will endure. This is just spectacular poetry, indescribably great. The wordplay is genius, and the poetry awesome. Even trying to find words to express the beauty and brilliance of Hamlet’s language seems cheap.

I completely agree.