On Visiting Shakespeare's Birthplace

In reverence I cross the boarded floor (This hallowed chamber I near fear to tread) And glimpse the ancient manger, oaken carved Wherein John Shakespeare’s babe once laid his head. I see the boy within these timber halls As time peels back the heavy veil of years, At play through laughing innocence unbound Life’s lessons learned, both happiness and tears. Oh Bard! Were you most Arden from the first? How formed your mind, what influence this space? How much your father’s son, or was it more This genius inspired by God’s own grace? Did you from cradle call with infant tongue, Not yet apprenticed to fair England’s speech, In verse that you alone could comprehend Prince Hal’s sweet cry; “Once more unto the breach”? More worthy men have passed this aged frame, Yet now I ask in truth who would deny That Keats and Dickens stood and stared in awe … Though pondered thoughts far more profound than I?