Explore "On Mrs. Kemble's Readings from Shakespeare" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
O precious evenings! all too swiftly sped! / Leaving us heirs to amplest heritages / Of all the best thoughts of the greatest sages, / And giving tongues unto the silent dead! / How our hearts glowed and trembled as she read, / Interpreting by tones the wondrous pages / Of the great poet who foreruns the ages, / Anticipating all that shall be said! / O happy Reader! having for thy text / The magic book, whose Sibylline leaves have caught / The rarest essence of all human thought! / O happy Poet! by no critic vext! / How must thy listening spirit now rejoice / To be interpreted by such a voice!