Shakespeare the boy with fairies in his head! Shakespeare the youth grown up with hedgerow flowers! Shakespeare the man—but who shall sum the powers By genius gendered and by London fed? His kind his day-book there, read and re-read; His lore the tavern's reckoning or the Tower's Grim placard: doom's dictation or the hour's— All, all approvingly interpreted. Mirthful or mournful as should suit his fable, Too near to nature for unmixed decorum, For every motion of life's masque a match; Of the world's friends none so companionable, Well met at court, in camp, chepe, forest, forum, And most himself beneath the Stratford thatch. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FUNERAL HYMN by LOUIS UNTERMEYER INSCRIPTION FOR THE ENTRANCE TO A WOOD by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT IMPRESSION by EDMUND WILLIAM GOSSE EUROPE; THE 72ND AND 73RD YEARS OF THESE STATES by WALT WHITMAN FITZ-GREENE HALLECK, AT THE UNVEILING OF HIS STATUE by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER A CHILD TO HIS SICK GRANDFATHER by JOANNA BAILLIE |