WHILE yet my lip was breathing youth's first breath, Too young to feel the utmost of their spell I saw Medea and Phaedra in Rachel: Later I saw the great Elizabeth. Rachel, Ristori -- we shall taste of death Ere we meet spirits like these: in one age dwell Not many such; a century may tell Its hundred beads before it braid a wreath For two so queenly foreheads. If it take AEons to form a diamond, grain on grain, AEons to crystallize its fire and dew -- By what slow processes must Nature make Her Shakespeares and her Raffaels? Great the gain If she spoil thousands making one or two. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE KITTEN AND THE FALLING LEAVES by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH A SONG OF LIFE by ABRAHAM IBN EZRA VERSES WRITTEN ON THE BACK OF AN OLD VISITATION COPY OF ARMS by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD INTRODUCTION TO A LADY'S ALBUM by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD THE WEST WIND by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT THE BLUEBIRD by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON WINTER TWILIGHT by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON AIRS SUNG AT BROUGHAM CASTLE: THE LORDS WELCOME by THOMAS CAMPION |