What needs my Shakespeare for his honoured bones, / The labor of an age in piled stones, / Or that his hallowed relics should be hid / Under a star-ypointing pyramid?
-- Speaker (Lines 1 – 4)

Importance: These are the opening lines of the poem, and they establish the reverent tone that the speaker exudes for the poem's subject, William Shakespeare. Here, the speaker thinks through historical means of honoring important people who have died. He thinks about large monuments and the Egyptian pyramids built to house the bodies of pharaohs, suggesting that Shakespeare is as important as great rulers from antiquity and beyond.

Dear son of Memory, great heir of fame, / What need’st thou such weak witness of thy name?
-- Speaker (Lines 5 – 6)

Importance: Here, the speaker addresses Shakespeare directly by using epithets, a poetic device employed frequently by the ancient Greek and Roman writers of epics. As such, the speaker frames Shakespeare as a type of epic hero. Furthermore, he...