Genevieve Taggard’s “Little Hamlet” gives us a speaker caught in a painful, almost obsessive state of suspension. She hovers over another person, repeating “Over you” as if she cannot pull away. The comparisons shift quickly—wave, lover, scimitar edged with hate—so the feeling is both intimate and dangerous. Each image suggests something that could break or strike, but she cannot do it. She is too heavy with grief to stand straight, too frail to actually fall. The mood is tense and breathless, full of held-back longing and resentment. That frozen state between tenderness and anger makes the title’s Hamlet reference fitting: she feels intensely but cannot turn the feeling into action. The final “blue-thin scimitar” makes her anger seem delicate, cold, and suspended rather than explosive.
Little Hamlet — Summary
Over you, over you, over, I hang like a wave, like a lover, Like a scimitar edged with hate ; Too heavy with grief to be straight
And far, Too frail to ever discover How to fall like a wave or a lover — Or a blue-thin scimitar.