Classic Poem

A Picture by S. R. Gifford, and owned by E. B. Included in
the N. A. Exhibition, April , 1865.

All feeling hearts must feel for him
Who felt this picture. Presage dim —
Dim inklings from the shadowy sphere
Fixed him and fascinated here.

A demon-cloud like the mountain one
Burst on a spirit as mild
As this urned lake, the home of shades.
But Shakspeare's pensive child

Never the lines had lightly scanned,
Steeped in fable, steeped in fate;
The Hamlet in his heart was 'ware,
Such hearts can antedate.

No utter surprise can come to him
Who reaches Shakspeare's core;
That which we seek and shun is there —
Man's final lore.