“What needs my Shakespeare for his honoured bones
The labour of an age in piled stones?
Or that his hallowed Reliques should be hid
Under a star-ypointing pyramid?”
These lines are written by
Ben Jonson
John Milton
Robert Browning
William Wordsworth
John Milton
The correct option is John Milton.
Explanation:
The quoted lines are the opening lines of the famous poem "On Shakespeare", written by the English poet John Milton in 1630. It was first published anonymously in the Second Folio of William Shakespeare's plays in 1632.
In this poem, Milton questions the need for a physical, grand monument like a "star-ypointing pyramid" or "piled stones" to preserve Shakespeare's memory. Instead, Milton argues that Shakespeare has built his own permanent monument in the minds of his readers through his brilliant writing, making physical monuments completely redundant.