An Epitaph On The Admirable Dramatic Poet W. Shakespeare

John Milton

What needs my Shakespeare for his honored bones
The labor of an age in piled stones?
Or that his hallowed reliques should be hid
Under a star-ypointing pyramid?
Dear son of Memory, great heir of Fame,
What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name?
Thou in our wonder and astonishment
Hast built thy self a livelong monument.
For whilst, to th' shame of slow-endeavoring art,
Thy easy numbers flow, and that each heart
Hath from the leaves of thy unvalued book
Those Delphic lines with deep impression took,
Then thou, our fancy of itself bereaving,
Dost make us marble with too much conceiving,
And so sepulchred in such pomp dost lie
That kings for such a tomb would wish to die. 

Next 10 Poems

• John Milton : An Epitaph On The Marchioness Of Winchester
• John Milton : Another On The Same
• John Milton : Arcades
• John Milton : At A Solemn Musick
• John Milton : At A Vacation Exercise In The Colledge, Part Latin, Part English. The Latin Speeches Ended, The English Thus Began
• John Milton : Comus
• John Milton : From 'arcades'
• John Milton : From 'samson Agonistes' I
• John Milton : How Soon Hath Time
• John Milton : Hymn On The Morning Of Christ's Nativity

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