 | Stones from The Quarry |  |
209
SHAKSPEAR.
But one of ten! yet count for ten times ten!
Wer'st but a tenth, had Nature so ordained!
Yet thy one ten combined had not contained
Even “writ small,” thou paragon of men!
Strange, that self-same should be so alien!
Self-elemented with them; touched, constrained
To cognate issues; of one blood; same-brain'd,
Same-hearted, yet so unlike thus and then!
Strange procreant womb of Nature! thus to make
Such difference in resemblance, and self-same
In origin function so divérse to take!
What 'twixt those close-kin'd nine and thyself came
To sunder thus, with scarce more than the name
Of consanguinity, to bridge such break?
Wer'st but a tenth, had Nature so ordained!
Yet thy one ten combined had not contained
Even “writ small,” thou paragon of men!
Strange, that self-same should be so alien!
Self-elemented with them; touched, constrained
To cognate issues; of one blood; same-brain'd,
Same-hearted, yet so unlike thus and then!
Strange procreant womb of Nature! thus to make
Such difference in resemblance, and self-same
In origin function so divérse to take!
What 'twixt those close-kin'd nine and thyself came
To sunder thus, with scarce more than the name
Of consanguinity, to bridge such break?
Some shine in constellations, and are bright
With radiánce intércommunicate,
Each showing brighter from the other's state,
Lending and borrowing larger loans of light;
So sisters blend in charm indefinite,
And each seems other, and all one create,
As all three Graces on one Venus wait.
Some pass-on glory; some play satellite,
Increasing and increased! But thou shon'st sole—
A star heliacal, to herald on
Thy sun, rose antecedent, but paid toll
Of light, and paled at great comparison.
None of thine handled pen, or played great rôle;
Thou wast thyself enough, the unique-one!
With radiánce intércommunicate,
Each showing brighter from the other's state,
Lending and borrowing larger loans of light;
So sisters blend in charm indefinite,
And each seems other, and all one create,
As all three Graces on one Venus wait.
Some pass-on glory; some play satellite,
Increasing and increased! But thou shon'st sole—
A star heliacal, to herald on
Thy sun, rose antecedent, but paid toll
Of light, and paled at great comparison.
None of thine handled pen, or played great rôle;
Thou wast thyself enough, the unique-one!
| Stones from The Quarry | |