On Shakespear by John Milton

On Shakespear
1630

What needs my Shakespear for his honour’d Bones,
The labour of an age in piled Stones,
Or that his hallow’d reliques should be hid
Under a Star-ypointing Pyramid?
Dear son of memory, great heir of Fame,
What need’st thou such weak witnes of thy name?
Thou in our wonder and astonishment
Hast built thy self a live-long Monument.
For whilst to th’sharne of slow-endeavouring art,
Thy easie numbers flow, and that each heart
Hath from the Leaves of thy unvalu’d Book,
Those Delphick lines with deep impression took,
Then thou our fancy of it self bereaving,
Dost make us Marble with too much conceaving;
And so Sepulcher’d in such pomp dost lie,
That Kings for such a Tomb would wish to die

John Milton
Born: 9 December 1608, London, England
Nationality: English
Died: 8 November 1674, London, England

Milton was a poet, polemicist, and civil servant. He is best known for the epic poem ‘Paradise Lost’ (1667), composed in blank verse over ten books and written at a time of religious flux and political upheaval. Milton served as a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under its Council of State and later under Oliver Cromwell