Shakespeare by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

………………Shakespeare

A vision as of crowded city streets,
…With human life in endless overflow;
…Thunder of thoroughfares; trumpets that blow
…To battle; clamor, in obscure retreats,
Of sailors landed from their anchored fleets;
…Tolling of bells in turrets, and below
…Voices of children, and bright flowers that throw
…O’er garden-walls their intermingled sweets!
This vision comes to me when I unfold
…The volume of the Poet paramount,
…Whom all the Muses loved, not one alone; –
Into his hands they put the lyre of gold,
…And, crowned with sacred laurel at their fount,
…Placed him as Musagetes on their throne.

 

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