Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume VII. Descriptive: Narrative. 1904. | | | | Descriptive Poems: I. Personal: Great Writers | | Guilielmus Rex | | Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836–1907) |
| | | THE FOLK who lived in Shakespeare’s day | |
| And saw that gentle figure pass | |
| By London Bridge, his frequent way— | |
| They little knew what man he was. | |
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| The pointed beard, the courteous mien, | 5 |
| The equal port to high and low, | |
| All this they saw or might have seen— | |
| But not the light behind the brow! | |
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| The doublet’s modest gray or brown, | |
| The slender sword-hilt’s plain device, | 10 |
| What sign had these for prince or clown? | |
| Few turned, or none, to scan him twice. | |
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| Yet ’t was the king of England’s kings! | |
| The rest with all their pomps and trains | |
| Are mouldered, half-remembered things— | 15 |
| ’T is he alone that lives and reigns! | | | | |
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