Writelike Shakespeare: Macbeth's 'Tomorrow' soliloquy

In a nutshell, Macbeth is saying life is meaningless.

He does this by extending the stage metaphor from the previous line, but shifting focus from the player to the play: a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing.

This is one sentence with three clauses, each clause with a one-word verb.

The first clause is as simple as you could ever get: 'It is a tale'—Noun-Verb-Noun.

The subsequent three clauses all qualify that first clause: 

• It is a tale
  • Told by an idiot
  • Full of sound and fury
  • Signifying nothing

Each clause has a different grammatical structure but similar rhythm—and it's a different rhythm to what's come before.

You can see that it breaks the pattern of weak words at the start of teach line; in this snippet strong verbs start lines 2 & 3: 'told' and 'signifying'. (And we still end on strong nouns: 'tale' 'fury', 'nothing'.)

This change is for impact, because this is the final statement. Read this snippet aloud to hear how those two strong verbs land.

Try writing your own variation. Tips in order of importance:

• You're expanding on the previous metaphor, so keep your imagery in the same vein.
• Start with the simplest possible statement.
• Then three qualifying statements.
• Try to put verbs in the same place so you get three clauses, and try to keep the verbs grammatically simple.
• Pay attention to those premium word slots: the last words in each line, and those two verb slots at the beginning. 
• This is your chance to wrap everything up and punch your feelings home.