Poems (Coates 1916)/Volume I/Shakespeare

by Florence Earle Coates

For works with similar titles, see Shakespeare.

SHAKESPEARE

O'ER-TOPPING all—upon how lone a height!—
A demiurge beneficent, a seer
Like his own Prospero, he doth appear,
'Mid clouds that half conceal him from our sight,
A being god-like in creative might:
He who so very human was! so near
To Nature that her voice through him we hear—
Her voice of truth and beauty infinite.

Shakespeare! With love and awe we breathe his name
Who needs not mortal praise! Deathless in fame,
Far from our dull activities he seems;
But let us turn, a-wearied, from the strife,
To share with him the high adventure,—life,
Straightway we feel the stirrings of Great Dreams!