WHILE yet my lip was breathing youth's first breath, Too young to feel the utmost of their spell I saw Medea and Phaedra in Rachel: Later I saw the great Elizabeth. Rachel, Ristori -- we shall taste of death Ere we meet spirits like these: in one age dwell Not many such; a century may tell Its hundred beads before it braid a wreath For two so queenly foreheads. If it take AEons to form a diamond, grain on grain, AEons to crystallize its fire and dew -- By what slow processes must Nature make Her Shakespeares and her Raffaels? Great the gain If she spoil thousands making one or two. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BLACK RIDERS: 9 by STEPHEN CRANE CINQUAIN: THE WARNING by ADELAIDE CRAPSEY A STRANGE MEETING by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES IN HOSPITAL: 23. MUSIC by WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY SONNET: 66 by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE THE SCHOOL GIRL by WILLIAM HENRY VENABLE |