Is that Shakespeare? Beats by the bard

Is it Shakespeare or hip hop? Think you can tell the difference between Shakespeare and Jay-Z? Test Yo’ Skills

Pop Sonnets

Shakespeare wrote sonnets too Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st, Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade, When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st. So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. Aw, it’s romantic and junk.

Does this seem a bit familiar? Now cease thy talking; prithee, hear my words! This newly written sonnet I’ll recite. The Muse hath gripp’d my mortal soul and spurr’d It swiftly forth, as though a spear in flight. O will its inspirations ever quit? I do not know; yet if thou shouldst turn out The lights herein, I shall a glow emit and, like a candle, was a common lout. It is a crime not to perform my best, but greatness is well worth the heavy price. Pray, tell thy mother “word” at my behest – A missive from the bard Vanilla Ice. --If thou has problems, I’ll them all allay; now mark the melodies my minstrels play!

Ice, Ice Baby

What about this one?

Bohemian Rhapsody

Your Turn! Partner up and see if you can figure out what famous pop song has been Shakespeare-ified on your papers.