On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again

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1. O golden-tongued Romance, with serene lute!
2. Fair plumèd Syren, Queen of far away!
3. Leave melodizing on this wintry day,
4. Shut up thine olden pages, and be mute:
5. Adieu! for once again the fierce dispute,
6. Betwixt damnation and impassion'd clay,
7. Must I burn through; once more humbly assay
8. The bitter sweet of this Shakespearean fruit:
9. Chief Poet! and ye clouds of Albion,
10. Begetters of our deep eternal theme!
11. When through the old oak forest I am gone,
12. Let me not wander in a barren dream,
13. But when I am consumèd in the Fire,
14. Give me new Phœnix-wings to fly at my desire.