To Shakespeare
Lord Alfred Douglas 1870 (Worcestershire) – 1945 (Lancing)
Most tuneful singer, lover tenderest,
Most sad, most piteous, and most musical,
Thine is the shrine more pilgrim-worn than all
The shrines of singers; high above the rest
Thy trumpet sounds most loud, most manifest.
Yet better were it if a lonely call
Of woodland birds, a song, a madrigal,
Were all the jetsam of thy sea's unrest.
For now thy praises have become too loud
On vulgar lips, and every yelping cur
Yaps thee a paean ; the whiles little men,
Not tall enough to worship in a crowd,
Spit their small wits at thee. Ah ! better then
The broken shrine, the lonely worshipper.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 22, 2023
- 32 sec read
- 87 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABCAACBA ADEAED |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 577 |
Words | 106 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 6 |
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"To Shakespeare" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/25992/to-shakespeare>.
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