On Shakespeare 1630 by John Milton

A young John Milton sat in the lighted silence of 1630, pen poised with awe, as time still woven its tapestry of kings and muses. Shakespeare's ghost was summoned forever by his spell, which was more than just poetry. On Shakespeare, though brief, holds the weight of ages.

Milton, yet to ascend to his own literary Olympus, casts his lines not in lament, but in triumphant awe. No marble tomb, no gilded sepulcher could contain the Bard’s spirit; Shakespeare doesn't need a monument because his words are his monument, unchanging and unshakeable. The chisel's stroke will be outlasted by the ink of Othello and Hamlet. What need’st thou such weak witness of thy name? Milton asks, perhaps mocking the notion that the warmth of verse could ever be matched by frigid stone.

However, there is a quiet inheritance hidden behind the eulogy. Milton is comparing himself to Shakespeare, not just complimenting him. As a young poet on the verge of glory, he understands that he must produce words that endure beyond death. This passage foreshadows Paradise Lost, where Milton himself will create a universe of words as limitless and unbreakable as the one Shakespeare created.

Shakespeare is not the only subject of this poem; it also explores the immortality of language, the magic of words, and the poet's ability to condense eternity into a single quill stroke. Milton reminds us that the Bard is still alive. He is alive in the tremble of every heart touched by his tragedies, in the breath of every syllable uttered, and in the unquenchable fire of his comedies. Would there ever be a monument taller than that?

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