Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, APRIL TWENTY-THIRD, by THOMAS WALSH


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

APRIL TWENTY-THIRD, by                    
First Line: Death sallied forth upon this fateful day
Last Line: "and shakespeare bowed: ""you are don quixote still."
Alternate Author Name(s): Gill, Roderick; Strange, Garrett
Subject(s): Cervantes, Miguel De (1547-1616); Death; Dramatists; Plays & Playwrights; Poetry & Poets; Shakespeare, William (1564-1616); Writing & Writers; Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel De; Dead, The


DEATH sallied forth upon this fateful day
Through Spain and England for a mighty prey,
And struck two masters with a single blow
And laid Cervantes and Will Shakespeare low!
Two Captains in the very front of Fame,
A valiant pair without a touch of shame,
They laid them down contented both to go,
Leaving behind the life all letters know:—
Don Quixote's dreams and follies for the wise,—
Hamlet and Lear and many another prize
For thoughtful youth and unforgetting age
Ranged at the footlights of a magic stage.—
But when the two great master-ghosts did hark
Together on the shore where Charon's bark
Came feebly plashing for so grand a freight,
Cervantes sweeping a salute of state
Said, "Here must you precede me, Master Will!"
And Shakespeare bowed: "You are Don Quixote still."





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