At Stratford-on-Avon

Shakespeare, thy legacy of peerless song
Reveals mankind in every age and place,
In every joy, in every grief and wrong:
'T is England's legacy to all our race.

Little we know of all thine inner life,
Little of all thy swift, thy wondrous years—
Years filled with toil, rich years whose days were rife
With strains that bring us mirth, that bring us tears.

Little we know, and yet this much we know,
Sense was thy guiding star—sense guided thee
To live in this thy Stratford long ago,
To live content in calm simplicity;

Greatest of those who wrought with soul aflame
At honest daily work—then found it fame.