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On The Three Hundredth Anniversary of Shakespeare's Birthday
Shakespeare, whose life once filled an English home,With childhood's mirth and manhood's noble cheer,
What time our fathers to these wilds did roam;
We hail thee, mighty Bard! without a peer!
To thee did Nature's countless forms unfold
Their meaning, hidden from the common eye;
The earth, the sea, the sky, their secrets told,
And man's deep spirit did to thine reply.
By Avon's banks we tread; thy home we see,
The church, where still in peace thy bones repose;
Join with the throng, that holds thy Jubilee,
And guards thy fame, that, with each century, grows;
No longer to thy native land confined,
For the whole world may claim thy glorious mind.
Poem No. 417; April 1864
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