Before those poets Milton, Keats and Blake,
Will knew the web of life’s a mingled twine;
That good and evil grow, for growing’s sake,
Together, as indeed do joy and pine;
That Mother Nature loves to make men whole
Through her collaborator Mistress Art,
Whose dialectic briefly heals the soul
By synthesizing polar mind and heart.
He knew, what’s more, he’d be a greater bard
For acting in and managing the Globe:
It forced him outward details to regard,
And life external equally to probe.
Thus art and stage, combined, did him sustain
When fearful chaos came to him again.
Jerusalem
5 March 2005