Wind, not weather vane

[Lizzie]

Hi, Achebe. A couple of thoughts from me:

I agree with others that this should be in iambic pent. The ear expects it.

Curious about the choice to short the second stanza a line and rhyme three lines together? I don't hate it, just curious.

I usually grimace at rhyming couplets, but they are not offensive in this one because the rhymes aren't "jingly jangly" to use your phrase.

It still comes across as quite a lyrical piece despite it's bumps.

From youth we pass to the twilight age
on the Shakespearean stage
wondering if our part played right
before candles out, and all is night - 
did lurking joy and muted smiles belie -- lurking joy is unexpected (in a good way), since we usually associate lurking with something creepy and sinister. I like muted smiles belie, and the idea that a part is not adequately played without intensity of emotion. This thought combined with the restrained tone of the writing is striking. In a good way.
mad Othello’s rage or Desdemona’s cry?

Unforced we fell into our pageantry -- comma after unforced?
and Brutus bootless knelt in Act Three, -- Brutus bootless is especially nice, and I like that you switched the expected order and didn't put bootless first.
choosing the formulaic writ decree
over being the one who'd part and play defy -
wind, not weather-vane; arrow, not eye. -- enjoying the pacing on this last line -- the punctuation slows the reading, and makes the reader concentrate on the meaning. Sometimes rhyming pieces have a tendency to barrel forward.

Thanks for the read,

Lizzie