To My Copy Of Shakspeare Which Had Been Lost

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Title:     To My Copy Of Shakspeare Which Had Been Lost
Author: James Avis Bartley [More Titles by Bartley]

Hast thou come back, my Shakspeare! bard,
Who didst dethrone and drive away those others,
From cold Parnassus, fate that seem'd too hard,
To be inflicted on thy gentle brothers.

Thou didst spare one, left him enthroned fast,
The blind old man of Scio, hoary Homer,
So that of all the harpers first and last,
To call him king, is not a base misnomer.

There on those far and ever whiten'd rocks,
You two sit monarchs of a rich dominion;
But I forgot dark Milton's sacred locks,
Serenely resting from his seraph pinion!

Hast thou come back, great bard, to charm and bless
My heart with many a grand, illusive vision,
And show those gorgeous fields of happiness,
With vistas and with rivers all Elysian?

Stay now with me; no more through all the years,
Wilt thou and I, O glorious friend! be parted;
Or, if e'er so, my overflowing tears,
Will prove that I am grieved, or broken-hearted.

Yes stay, and I shall haste to thy converse,
With full delight, at rosiate morn, calm even,
And I shall dream of rich and golden verse
From angel lyres within the bowers of Heaven.

[The end]
James Avis Bartley's poem: To My Copy Of Shakspeare Which Had Been Lost

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