“What needs my Shakespeare for his honoured bones,
The labor of an age in pilèd stones,
Or that his hallowed relics should be hid
Under a star-y-pointing pyramid?
Dear son of memory, great heir of fame,
What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name?”

—  John Milton

On Shakespeare (1630)
Source: The Complete Poetry

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "What needs my Shakespeare for his honoured bones, The labor of an age in pilèd stones, Or that his hallowed relics sh…" by John Milton?
John Milton photo
John Milton 190
English epic poet 1608–1674

Related quotes

Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo

“What is the light of a poet's name,
If it is not his country that hallows his fame?
Where may he look for guerdon so fair
As the honour and praise that await him there?
His name will be lost and his grave forgot,
If the tears of his country preserve them not!...”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist

The Improvisatrice (1824)

William Morley Punshon photo

“Ye are born, all of you, to a royal birthright. Scorn not the poor, thou wealthy — his toil is nobler than thy luxury. Fret not at the rich, thou poor — his beneficence is comelier than thy murmuring. Join hands, both of you, rich and poor together, as ye toil in the brotherhood of God's great harvest-field — heirs of a double heritage — thou poor, of thy kingly labor — thou rich, of thy queenly charity — and let heaven bear witness to the bridal.”

William Morley Punshon (1824–1881) English Nonconformist minister

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 111.

Bobby Sands photo

“And blessed is he man who stands
Before his God in pain
And on his back a cross of woe
His wounds a gaping shame.
For this man is a son of God
And hallowed be thy name.”

Bobby Sands (1954–1981) Irish volunteer of the Provisional Irish Republican Army

Trilogy, pt. 3 "Torture at H Block"
Poetry, Miscellaneous poems

Jane Barker photo

“Welcome, brave Hero, to this course Retreat,
Thou who excell'st whatever Rome call'd great;
Great as thou art, yet others of thy Name
Shall thee transcend in martial Acts and Fame.
Two shall their Names from Africa receive,
As Asia did to thee thy Glories give.”

Jane Barker (1652–1732) British writer

Book II
Exilius http://www.pierre-marteau.com/editions/1715-exilius.html (1715)

“What does it matter whether millions of semi-brainless beings curse or bless my memory? It is equally one to me whether they hang my bones in chains like they did the bones of Cromwell, or build a pyramid of stone over my mouldering coffin. Today only do I regard. Today I know. Today is mine. Today I wish to be something.”

Arthur Desmond (1859–1929) New Zealnd writer

Rival Caesars (1903)

Elizabeth Barrett Browning photo

“She has seen the mystery hid
Under Egypt's pyramid:
By those eyelids pale and close
Now she knows what Rhamses knows.”

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) English poet, author

Little Mattie, Stanza ii; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

John Ogilby photo

“There had his flesh been rent, fractur'd his bones,
'Mongst rowling pebbles, and sharp pointed stones.”

John Ogilby (1600–1676) Scottish academic

Book V
Homer His Odysses Translated (1665)

Thomas Fuller (writer) photo

“3036. As he that doth not eat when he should, may have no Stomach when he is weak, but presently vomits up his Food again; so if thou studiest not the Art of Patience, and preparest not thy mind before-hand, and takest not in Grounds of Consolation, till thou art in Troubles, and hast need of great Comfort, thou wilt find thy Soul very impatient of Remedies, and 'twill be irksome to thee but even to read such Things as should quiet thee.”

Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual

Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727)

“He entered; but the mask he wore
Concealed his face from me.
Still, something I had seen before
He brought to memory. "Who art thou? What thy rank, thy name?"
I questioned, with surprise;
"Thyself" the laughing answer came,
"As seen of others' eyes."”

John B. Tabb (1845–1909) American poet

"The Stranger", in Poems (1894) http://www.archive.org/details/poemsjohntabb00tabbrich

Gerald Griffin photo

“A place in thy memory, dearest,
Is all that I claim;
To pause and look back when thou hearest
The sound of my name.”

Gerald Griffin (1803–1840) Irish novelist, poet and playwright

A Place in thy Memory, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Related topics