An Epitaph on the Admirable Dramatic Poet, W. Shakespeare

By John Milton (1608–1674)

Born at Stratford-on-Avon, April 23, 1564. Died there April 23, 1616.

WHAT needs my Shakespeare for his honored bones—

The labor of an age in piled stones?

Or that his hallowed reliques should be hid

Under a starry-pointing pyramid?

Dear son of memory, great heir of fame,

What need’st thou such weak witness of thy name?

Thou in our wonder and astonishment

Hast built thyself a live-long monument.

For whilst to th’ shame of slow-endeavoring art

Thy easy numbers flow, and that each heart

Hath from the leaves of thy unvalued book

Those Delphic lines with deep impression took,

Then thou, our fancy of itself bereaving,

Dost make us marble with too much conceiving;

And, so sepulchred, in such pomp dost lie

That kings for such a tomb would wish to die.