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Poems

By W. C. Bennett: New ed
  

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[With you, too, comes the Shakespeare of all sound]
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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494

[With you, too, comes the Shakespeare of all sound]

With you, too, comes the Shakespeare of all sound,
Handel, whose glory was to us reveal'd
With last Spring's violets, when the organ peal'd
His mighty hymns—strains fittest to resound
With Heaven's hosannas the White Throne around,
While on the jasper sea archangels shield
Their eyes from the brightness that His glories yield.
Then swell'd for us his ocean-bursts of sound,
And myriad voices poured Miltonic praise,
And chorus answer'd chorus—choir to choir
Telling His majesty, who was ere day's
New glory was, or night's. On wing'd desire
Our souls stream'd upwards—in a hush'd amaze
Rapt, like the Prophet's, up to God in fire.