Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul
Of the wide world dreaming on things to come,
Can yet the lease of my true love control,
Supposed as forfeit to a confined doom.
The mortal moon hath her eclipse endured,
And the sad augurs mock their own presage;
Incertainties now crown themselves assured,
And peace proclaims olives of endless age.
Now with the drops of this most balmy time,
My love looks fresh, and Death to me subscribes,
Since, spite of him, I’ll live in this poor rhyme,
While he insults o’er dull and speechless tribes:
     And thou in this shalt find thy monument,
     When tyrants’ crests and tombs of brass are spent.

Analysis
Sonnet 107 continues the theme of others that the poem itself will survive human mortality, and both the poet and beloved will achieve immortality through it, this time against all odds and maladies.

Neither Bill’s own fears nor others’ speculations on his future can keep him from his all-but-imprisoned love. With the moon’s unexpected eclipse, those who predicted such things laugh at their mistakes! Now things are peaceful and wonderful, the youth healthy, and Death is made inferior– and Bill and the youth will live forever in this monument of words, and outlive even the brass monuments of others.

Will’s Wordplay
The line about the eclipse of the moon has sometimes been interpreted as reference to death of Queen Elizabeth I

Sonnet 107 can also be seen as referring to Doomsday. The sonneteer’s love cannot even be ended by the “confined doom.” The eclipse of the moon, then, like the “sad augurs,” refers to a sign that might presage the Last Judgment. While everything else (the “tombs of brass” for example)comes to an end, the “poor rhyme” will be the last thing to go. As in Sonnet 55, the power of the sonnet to give life to the young man — or, here, to serve as a monument to him — will only be overshadowed when that young man literally comes forth from the grave on Judgment Day.

FDR Four Freedoms Park, Roosevelt Island
The Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park is a four-acre memorial to Franklin D. Roosevelt that celebrates the Four Freedoms he articulated in his 1941 State of the Union address. It is located at the southernmost point of Roosevelt Island, in the East River between Manhattan Island and Queens. It was designed by the architect Louis Kahn.

President Roosevelt made his Four Freedoms speech to the United States Congress in 1941. The Four Freedoms speech has inspired and been incorporated in the Four Freedoms Monument in Florida, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C., and Norman Rockwell’s series of paintings called the Four Freedoms.

Roosevelt Island was named in honor of the former president in 1973, and the planners announced their intention to build a memorial to Roosevelt at the island’s southern tip. [1] Louis Kahn was asked to design the monument in 1972. Four Freedoms Park is one of Kahn’s last works. [2] He was carrying the finished designs with him when he died in 1974 in Pennsylvania Station in New York City. [3] After Kahn’s death, his designs were continued by Mitchell | Giurgola Architects, who kept to Kahn’s original intentions. [4] An exhibition at Cooper Union in 2005 brought additional attention and helped to advance the project. Ground breaking took place in 2010.

The park was opened with a dedication ceremony on October 17, 2012. Tom Brokaw served as master of ceremonies. Participants included President Bill Clinton, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and relatives of FDR. Cuomo said that “New York became the laboratory of progressive democracy, and F.D.R. was the scientist creating formulas for a broad range of national problems and social ills.” He praised vanden Heuvel as a “juggernaut of determination”. Clinton noted the memorial’s location: “As we look out on this bright new day, we are close to the U.N., which he, more than any other soul, created.” [5]

Design
The four-acre park stands at the southernmost point of Roosevelt Island. Looking south, the visitor has a clear view of the United Nations building; to the north of the park is the Queensboro Bridge, which spans the East River. Approaching from the north, the visitor passes between a double row of trees that narrow as they approach the point, framing views of the New York skyline and the harbor. The memorial is a procession of elegant open-air spaces, culminating in a 3,600-square-foot plaza surrounded by 28 blocks of North Carolina granite, each weighing 36 tons. The courtyard contains a bust of Roosevelt, sculpted in 1933 by Jo Davidson. [4]

At the point, the monument itself is a simplified, roofless version of a Greek temple in granite. [2] Excerpts from Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech are carved on the walls of this room-like space, which is open to the sky above.

The memorial is constructed entirely in Mount Airy Granite sourced from the North Carolina Granite Corporation. Over 140,000 cubic feet of Mount Airy Granite was used in the memorial’s construction. In contrast with the hard granite forms, Kahn placed five copper-beech trees at the memorial’s entrance and 120 little-leaf lindens in allées leading up to the monument.

References
1. “Memorial Park Honoring Franklin D. Roosevelt,” William J. vanden Heuvel, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute.
2. Iovine, Julie V. (January 9, 2005). “An Elegy for a Memorial, and for the Man Who Designed It”. The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-07-23.
3. Roberts, Sam (April 15, 2010). “For a Roosevelt Memorial, a Groundbreaking 36 Years in the Making”. The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-07-23
4. Mortice, Zach (August 14, 2009). “Its Quiet Optimism Maintained, Louis Kahn’s Roosevelt Island FDR Memorial Moves into Construction”. AIArchitect.
5. Foderaro, Lisa W. (October 17, 2012). “Dedicating Park to Roosevelt and His View of Freedom”. New York Times.

ACTOR – John Kinsherf
My first role in a play by Shakespeare was Touchstone in Boston College High School’s world renowned and critically acclaimed production of As You Like It.

Well…my Mom liked it.

There have been many more since. The reason I mention that particular one is that besides it being the experience that made me fall in love with Shakespeare in general, it was directed by a man who nursed that love and taught me a great deal about the humanity at the heart of Shakespeare’s works. I would like to dedicate my performance in this video, if it has any merit, to his memory.

His name was Kevin Kynock. He was a dear friend, teacher, and mentor to me. He was a tall man of Falstaffian girth with a huge spirit to match. He introduced me to London, musical theatre, Peter Brook’s writings, John Water’s movies, music, the Stratford and Shaw festivals in Canada and so much more. Aside from the wonder of art, he taught me about food and drink and how to embrace and enjoy the sensual world as well. In short, he showed me how to live. Truly, one of the most generous people I have ever met in every sense.

Thank you, Kevin.

You may have seen me at National Actor’s Theatre on Broadway, The Acting Company, Manhattan Theatre Ensemble, Pearl Theatre, Judith Shakespeare Company, The Brick, The Huntington Theatre, The New Repertory Theatre, The Nickerson, Mill Mountain Theatre, Wellesley College Theatre, etc…

DIRECTORS – Stiv Brown and Brenden Gallagher
Stiv Brown and Brenden Gallagher are Beer Money Films. We met on the back of a truck, while doing grunt work on independent features. We quickly realized that wasn’t where we wanted to be and we started Beermoney a few months later. Beermoney has produced the award winning web series Crisis PR (crisisprshow.com), the web pilot Common Sense Police, and numerous short films and commercials.