The Coming Storm

A Picture by S.R. Gifford, and owned by E.B.
Included in the N.A. Exhibition, April, 1865.


All feeling hearts must feel for him
Who felt this picture. Presage dim -
Dim inklings from the shadowy sphere
Fixed him and fascinated here.

A demon-cloud like the mountain one
Burst on a spirit as mild
As this urned lake, the home of shades.
But Shakspeare's pensive child

Never the lines had lightly scanned,
Steeped in fable, steeped in fate;
The Hamlet in his heart was 'ware,
Such hearts can antedate.

No utter surprise can come to him
Who reaches Shakspeare's core;
That which we seek and shun is there -
Man's final lore.