Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, EPITAPH ON THE ADMIRABLE DRAMATIC POET, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, by JOHN MILTON


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EPITAPH ON THE ADMIRABLE DRAMATIC POET, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, by         Recitation     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: What needs my shakespeare for his honour'd bones
Last Line: That kings for such a tomb would wish to die.
Variant Title(s): Epitaph On Shakespeare;on Shakespeare. 1630
Subject(s): Dramatists; Plays & Playwrights ; Poetry & Poets; Shakespeare, William (1564-1616); Dramatists


WHAT needs my Shakespeare for his honored
bones,
The labor of an age in piled stones?
Or that his hallowed relics should be hid
Under a star-y-pointing pyramid?
Dear son of memory, great heir of fame,
What need'st thou such weak witness of thy
name?
Thou in our wonder and astonishment
Hast built thyself a livelong monument.
For whilst to the shame of slow-endeavoring art
Thy easy numbers flow, and that each heart
Hath from the leaves of thy unvalued book
Those Delphic lines with deep impression took,
Then thou our fancy of itself bereaving,
Dost make us marble with too much conceiving;
And so sepulchred in such pomp dost lie,
That kings for such a tomb would wish to die.




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