Poems
For one of the world's most popular television programs, Star Trek actually has a strong literary component. Kirk and his successors are fond of Shakespeare, Masefield, Lawrence, and others. Below are poems quoted within the show and in episode and film titles.
Sea Fever by John Masefield
I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face and a grey dawn breaking.
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying. I must go down to the seas again to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a
whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.
Kirk quotes the second line in The Ultimate Computer and The Final Frontier. It clearly gains added meaning in reference to a spaceship.
Hamlet: Act III, Scene I by William Shakespeare
To be, or not to be - that is the question;
whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer
the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
or to take arms against a sea of troubles
and by opposing end them. To die, to sleep -
no more - and by a sleep to say we end
the heartache and the thousand natural shocks
that flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation
devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep -
To sleep - perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub.
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
when we have shuffled off this mortal coil
must give us pause. There's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
the pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
the insolence of office, and the spurns
that patient merit of the unworthy takes,
when he himself might his quietus make
with a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
to grunt and sweat under a weary life,
but the dread of something after death,
the undiscovered country, from whose bourn
no traveller returns, puzzles the will,
and makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does makes cowards of us all;
and thus the native hue of resolution
is sicklied over with the pale cast of thought,
and enterprises of great pitch and moment
with this regard their currents turn awry
and lose their name of action.
This provided the original title of The Wrath of Khan and final title of The Undiscovered Country. The former would have been more appropriate, since it's clear that the "country" is death, not the future.
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Opening Passage: " It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. "
In The Wrath of Khan, Spock gives Kirk a hard copy of this novel for his birthday. One can read the rest of the book online.
Whales Weep Not by D.H. Lawrence
They say the sea is cold, but the sea contains
the hottest blood of all, and the wildest, the most urgent.
on and on, and dive beneath the icebergs.
The right whales, the sperm-whales, the hammer-heads,
the killers there they blow, there they blow,
hot wild white breath out of the sea! And they rock, and they rock, through the sensual
ageless ages on the depths of the seven seas,
and through the salt they reel with drunk delight
and in the tropics tremble they with love
and roll with massive, strong desire, like gods. Then the great bull lies up against his bride in the blue deep bed
of the sea,
as mountain pressing on mountain, in the zest of life:
and out of the inward roaring of the inner red ocean of whale-blood
the long tip reaches strong, intense, like the maelstrom-tip, and comes
to rest
in the clasp and the soft, wild clutch of a she-whales's fathomless body. And over the bridge of the whale's strong phallus, linking the wonder
of whales
the burning archangels under the sea keep passing, back and forth,
keep passing, archangels of bliss
from him to her, from her to him, great Cherubim
that wait on whales in mid-ocean, suspended in the waves of the sea
great heaven of whales in the waters, old hierarchies. And enormous mother whales lie dreaming suckling their
whale-tender young
and dreaming with strange whale eyes wide open in the waters
of the beginning and the end.
And bull-whales gather their women and whale-calves in a ring
when danger threatens, on the surface of the ceaseless flood
and range themselves like great fierce Seraphim facing the threat
encircling their huddled monsters of love.
And all this happens in the sea, in the salt
where God is also love, but without words:
and Aphrodite is the wife of whales
most happy, happy she! And Venus among the fishes skips and is a she-dolphin
she is the gay, delighted porpoise sporting with love and the sea
she is the female tunny-fish, round and happy among the males
and dense with happy blood, dark rainbow bliss in the sea.
Kirk quotes this as he and Gillian gaze at George and Gracie in their tank in The Voyage Home. A kindered spirit, she recongizes the poem.
Jordan by George Herbert
Who sayes that fictions onely and false hair
Become a verse? Is there in truth no beauty?
Is all good structure in a winding stair?
May no lines passe, except they do their dutie
Not to a true, but painted chair?
And sudden arbours shadow course-spunne lines?
Must purling streams refresh a lovers loves?
Must all be vail’d, while he that reades, divines,
Catching the sense at two removes? Shepherds are honest people;
let them sing:
Riddle who list, for me, and pull for Prime:
I envie no mans nightingale or spring;
Nor let them punish me with losse of rime,
Who plainly say, My God, My King.
The episode Is There in Truth No Beauty? takes its title from the second line of this Renaissance poem. While the episode explores inner and outer beauty, the verse actually asks if there is artistry in depicting fact.