Tristram of Lyonesse and Other Poems/George Chapman

by Algernon Charles Swinburne

XI.

GEORGE CHAPMAN.

HIGH priest of Homer, not elect in vain,
Deep trumpets blow before thee, shawms behind
Mix music with the rolling wheels that wind
Slow through the labouring triumph of thy train:
Fierce history, molten in thy forging brain,
Takes form and fire and fashion from thy mind,
Tormented and transmuted out of kind:
But howsoe'er thou shift thy strenuous strain,
Like Tailor^[1] smooth, like Fisher^[2] swollen, and now
Grim Yarrington^[3] scarce bloodier marked than thou,
Then bluff as Mayne's^[4] or broad-mouthed Barry's^[5] glee,
Proud still with hoar predominance of brow
And beard like foam swept off the broad blown sea,
Where'er thou go, men's reverence goes with thee.

1. Author of The Hog hath lost his Pearl.
2. Author of Fuimus Troes, or the Trite Trojans.
3. Author of Two Tragedies in One.
4. Author of The City Match.
5. Author of Ram-Alley, or Merry Tricks.