 | The Poems of Mackenzie Bell |  |
I.—IN PRAISE OF SHAKESPEARE.
“He was not of an age, but for all time!”
Never was nobler poet-tribute paid
Than this of stalwart Jonson to his friend—
To him whose deathless crown of love is wov'n
By Nature's royal hand of Nature's flowers.
As Shakespeare left this earth his Prospero's wand
Waved over England; lo! it hath transformed her!
Two thousand years of ever-changing life
Wrought less of change in her than fifteen score
Since face to face men met the bard in London.
Never was nobler poet-tribute paid
Than this of stalwart Jonson to his friend—
To him whose deathless crown of love is wov'n
By Nature's royal hand of Nature's flowers.
As Shakespeare left this earth his Prospero's wand
Waved over England; lo! it hath transformed her!
Two thousand years of ever-changing life
Wrought less of change in her than fifteen score
Since face to face men met the bard in London.
All, all is changed!
Save love and joy and laughter, ay, and pain
And hope and sin and sorrow, yet he speaks
Save love and joy and laughter, ay, and pain
And hope and sin and sorrow, yet he speaks
39
With clarion voice as ever, witnessing
For truth and right, for tenderness and faith.
Not with the arid tones of some harsh preacher
Who scolds the while he teaches, but with art
Which pictures right, which pictures sin and shame,
And points to truth.
For truth and right, for tenderness and faith.
Not with the arid tones of some harsh preacher
Who scolds the while he teaches, but with art
Which pictures right, which pictures sin and shame,
And points to truth.
Here haggard Shylock stands
To show the cruel wrong that racial hate
Alike brings to the oppressors and oppressed.
To show the cruel wrong that racial hate
Alike brings to the oppressors and oppressed.
Cordelia now approaches, tender-eyed,
Meek, with kind pity for her father, Lear,
A king no longer.
Meek, with kind pity for her father, Lear,
A king no longer.
Radiant Juliet comes,
Her Romeo has tranced her eye, and lo
Her being all is changed. For Love is here—
Sweet, early Love that makes a girl a woman,
And makes a youth a man. Sorrow and pain,
Alas! are later. But their present bliss
Is all-sufficing to the twain, and they
Know heaven when clasped in one another's arms.
Her Romeo has tranced her eye, and lo
Her being all is changed. For Love is here—
Sweet, early Love that makes a girl a woman,
And makes a youth a man. Sorrow and pain,
Alas! are later. But their present bliss
Is all-sufficing to the twain, and they
Know heaven when clasped in one another's arms.
Macbeth and his too zealous wife appear,
And pass before our eyes plotting foul crimes.
And pass before our eyes plotting foul crimes.
The “banished Duke” and kindly Jacques reveal
The greatest of the boons that Life may give
Is love of Nature and simplicity.
The greatest of the boons that Life may give
Is love of Nature and simplicity.
Gay Benedick and mirthful Beatrice
Make “Much Ado,” and linger, laughter-laden.
Bold Katherina yields herself at last
As conquerered in “The Taming of the Shrew.”
But not till she has railed and railed again
At brave Petruchio.
Make “Much Ado,” and linger, laughter-laden.
40
As conquerered in “The Taming of the Shrew.”
But not till she has railed and railed again
At brave Petruchio.
See Hamlet pass,
Profoundest personage in all the host
That Shakespeare makes to live, a lofty soul,
The study and the marvel of the world.
Profoundest personage in all the host
That Shakespeare makes to live, a lofty soul,
The study and the marvel of the world.
March 8th, 1907.
| The Poems of Mackenzie Bell | |