Translate

Saturday 23 April 2016

Sweet Swan of Avon, 23rd April 1616



Reader, looke  Not on his Picture, but his Booke
(Folger Shakespeare Library)

Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon

"To the Memory of My Beloved the Author, Mr William Shakespeare, and What He Hath Left Us
Sweet Swan of Avon! What a sight it were
To see thee in our water yet appear,
And make those flights upon the banks of Thames
That so did take Eliza, and our James!
But stay, I see thee in the hemisphere
Advanc'd and made a constellation there!
Shine forth, thou star of poets, and with rage
Or influence, chide, or cheer the drooping stage;
Which since thy flight from hence hath mourn'd like night,
 And despairs day, but for thy volume's light."

Ben Jonson,  from the dedication to Shakespeare's First Folio, published 1623


The Swan Fountain  1996, celebrating  Stratford's 800th Anniversary (sculptor Christine Lee)


The river at Stratford upon Avon

No comments:

Post a Comment