On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again + 

O golden-tongued Romance, with serene lute! + 

Fair plumèd Syren, Queen of far away! + 

Leave melodizing on this wintry day, + 

Shut up thine olden pages, and be mute: + 

Adieu! for once again the fierce dispute, + 

Betwixt damnation and impassion’d clay, + 

Must I burn through; once more humbly assay + 

The bitter sweet of this Shakespearean fruit: + 

Chief Poet! and ye clouds of Albion, + 

Begetters of our deep eternal theme! + 

When through the old oak forest I am gone, + 

Let me not wander in a barren dream, + 

But when I am consumèd in the Fire, + 

Give me new Phœnix-wings to fly at my desire. + 