```Of all that insolent Greece or haughty Rome ```Sent forth, or since did from their ashes come. ```Triumph, my Britain, thou hast one to show ```To whom all scenes of Europe homage owe. ```He was not of an age, but for all time! ```And all the muses still were in their prime ```When, like Apollo, he came forth to warm ```Our ears; or like a Mercury to charm. ```Nature herself was proud of his designs, ```And joyed to wear the dressing of his lines! ```Which were so richly spun and woven so fit ```As, since she will vouchsafe no other wit, ```The merry Greek, tart Aristophanes, ```Neat Terence, witty Plautus, how not please, ```But antiquated and deserted lie ```As they were not of nature's family. ```Yet must I not give nature all; thy Art, ```My gentle Shakespeare, must enjoy a part; ```For though the poets matter Nature be, ```His art doth give the fashion; and that he ```Who casts to write a living line must sweat ```(Such as thine are), and strike the second heat ```Upon the muse's anvil; turn the same ```And himself with it, that he thinks to frame, ```Or for the laurel he may gain a scorn, ```For a good poet's made, as well as born; ```And such wert thou! Look how the father's face {131} ```Lives in his issue, even so the race ```Of Shakespeare's mind and manners brightly shines ```In his well-turned and true-filled lines: ```In each of which he seems to shake a lance ```As brandished at the eyes of Ignorance. ```Sweet swan of Avon, what a sight it were ```To see thee in our waters yet appear, ```And make t-hose flights upon the banks of Thames ```That did so take Eliza and our James! ```Shine forth, thou Star of Poets, and with rage ```Or influence chide or cheer the drooping stage, ```Which, since thy flight from hence, hath mourned like `````night ```And despairs day, but for thy volume's light.=