Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SONNETS ON ENGLISH DRAMATIC POETS: 11. GEORGE CHAPMAN, by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE


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SONNETS ON ENGLISH DRAMATIC POETS: 11. GEORGE CHAPMAN, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: High priest of homer, not elect in vain
Last Line: Where'er thou go, men's reverence goes with thee.
Subject(s): Chapman, George (1559-1634)


HIGH priest of Homer, not elect in vain,
Deep trumpets blow before thee, shawms behind
Mix music with the rolling wheels that wind
Slow through the laboring triumph of thy train:
Fierce history, molten in thy forging brain,
Takes form and fire and fashion from thy mind,
Tormented and transmuted out of kind:
But howsoe'er thou shift thy strenuous strain,
Like Tailor smooth, like Fisher swollen, and now
Grim Yarrington scarce bloodier marked than thou,
Then bluff as Mayne's or broad-mouthed Barry's glee,
Proud still with hoar predominance of brow
And beard like foam swept off the broad blown sea,
Where'er thou go, men's reverence goes with thee.





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