Shakespeare Revisited

Will Shakespeare was born suckling the English language Draining its dugs of phrases, verses, verbs Words dripped in his ears the livelong day He lapped up colonies of creatures, characters, categories Odes, lyrics, legends, myths, fattened his flesh Similes, metaphors dogged his infant steps Prospective tragedies, the stuff of Tudor childhood Born in a village recently plague depleted Genius thickened his porridge He would sneak off into the forest from the hayfield Where blackbirds sang, to woo his wealthy wife Honeysuckle drowned the meadow hedges Hollyhocks head high flourished in this Eden Here on the threshing floor of youth He grew in symbolism, a peacock rising From a peck of sparrows. Chameleon dramatist, a man of many masks