Had I the choice to tally greatest bards, To limn their portraits, stately, beautiful, and emulate at will, Homer with all his wars and warriors -- Hector, Achilles, Ajax, Or Shakspere's woe-entangled Hamlet, Lear, Othello -- Tennyson's fair ladies, Metre or wit the best, or choice conceit to wield in perfect rhyme, delight of singers; These, these, O sea, all these I'd gladly barter, Would you the undulation of one wave, its trick to me transfer, Or breathe one breath of yours upon my verse, And leave its odor there. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE VOICE by WILFRID WILSON GIBSON RETURNING, WE HEAR THE LARKS by ISAAC ROSENBERG SPRING IN WAR TIME by SARA TEASDALE AN EVENING PRAYER by C. MAUDE BATTERSBY THE THREE SAD SHEPPARDESSES, GOE TO A LITTLE TABLE, WHERE THEY SINGE by ELIZABETH BRACKLEY A QUARREL WITH LOVE by NICHOLAS BRETON THE KNOCK by ABBIE FARWELL BROWN THE WANDERER: 1. IN ITALY: THE STORM by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON |