University of Virginia Library


340

TO JOHN FORSTER.

WITH SHAKESPERE'S WORKS.

I do not know a man who better reads
Or weighs the great thoughts of the book I send,—
Better than he whom I have called my friend
For twenty years and upwards. He who feeds
Upon Shakesperian pastures never needs
The humbler food which springs from plains below:
Yet may he love the little flowers that blow,
And him excuse who for their beauty pleads.
Take then my Shakespere to some sylvan nook;
And pray thee, in the name of Days of old,
Good-will and friendship, never bought or sold,
Give me assurance thou wilt always look
With kindness still on Spirits of humbler mould;
Kept firm by resting on that wondrous book,
Wherein the Dream of Life is all unrolled.