"Let Me Die a Youngman's Death" by Roger McGough

Let me die a youngman's death
not a clean and inbetween
the sheets holywater death
not a famous-last-words
peaceful out of breath death

When I'm 73
and in constant good tumour
may I be mown down at dawn
by a bright red sports car
on my way home
from an allnight party

Or when I'm 91
with silver hair
and sitting in a barber's chair
may rival gangsters
with hamfisted tommyguns burst in
and give me a short back and insides

Or when I'm 104
and banned from the Cavern
may my mistress
catching me in bed with her daughter
and fearing for her son
cut me up into little pieces
and throw away every piece but one

Let me die a youngman's death
not a free from sin tiptoe in
candle wax and waning death
not a curtains drawn by angels borne
'what a nice way to go' death

I really liked this poem because of the way it can relate to anyone, and because of the humor. The author is basically saying that he does not want to die a boring normal death. He wants to live life to the fullest and be in an adventure before he dies. He does not want a "famous last-words, peaceful out of breath-death", he wants to die in an exciting way. This poem is full of great scenarios of how the author would like to die. When he is 73, he says he wants to die on his way home from an all night party. When he is 91, he wants to die getting his hair cut while a mob of gangsters walk in and shoot him like in the movies. My favorite one, is how he wants to die when he is 104. He says he wants to get caught by his mistress in bed with her daughter. I loved this poem because I completely agree with it. I don't want a "what a nice way to go death" either. Like Roger McGough, I'd like to die a youngman's death.

" All the World's a Stage" by William Shakespeare

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

I picked this poem because it's one of the only ones by Shakespeare that I really understand. I think Shakespeare is trying to point out that we are all living on a stage, which is the world. He says that we are actors in our own lives, with scripts running from our birth to death. 

Then the poem says that we need to be humble as we're not really that important, and many other people are going through exactly what we are.  I liked this poem because I could not only keep up with it, but it kept me itnerested and I understood the meaning at the end-this usually doesn't happen to me when I read Shakespeare's poems or monologues. The main idea I took from this poem was to not take life too seriously, because in reality, we're all just actors in the play of life.