Poetry Archives

If, in thy second state sublime,
  Thy ransom’d reason change replies
  With all the circle of the wise,
The perfect flower of human time;

And if thou cast thine eyes below,
  How dimly character’d and slight,
  How dwarf’d a growth of cold and night,
How blanch’d with darkness must I grow!

Yet turn thee to the doubtful shore,
  Where thy first form was made a man:
  I loved thee, Spirit, and love, nor can
The soul of Shakespeare love thee more.