Hamlet's Soliloquy as a Song

I think I preferred Gilligan's rendition.

Why do teachers love to come up with such useless assignments such as memorizing a soliloquy when they could be teaching you how to balance a checkbook? (yes, I know those things are unrelated, but I'm just saying that one is more useful than the other)

@emmakate -- one can never tell what will be useful in the future. Vocabulary I learned from the Hamlet soliloquy I had to memorize in high school came up in conversation just yesterday. And my computer has balanced my checkbook for me for several years.

I still remember the passage from Macbeth:

If it were done when tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly.
If the assassination could trammel up the consequence, and catch with his surcease success,
That but this blow might be the be-all and the end-all,
Here but here upon this bank and shoal of time, we'd jump the life to come.

Memorizing poetry is fun. It makes you think more about the words: how they sound, what they mean, etc...

Why would they teach you how to balance a chequebook in English class, anyway?

I can't wait for a pomplamoose cover of this... Will it come? we live in hope...

I don't remember any of my memorized Shakespeare, but reading him definitely enriched my life.

Schools can teach both practical skills and cultural heritage. And like ted said, there's no need to teach checkbook balancing in an English class.