"Our revels now are ended"

Shakespeare, from The Tempest

Our Poem of this Week directs us once again to Shakespeare’s The Tempest, set on a strange and nearly uninhabited island in the middle of the Mediterranean. Sometimes it appears as if the place is barren, dry, empty of life. And sometimes — or maybe to people whose hearts are open to wonder — it appears as green and full of life as Eden. The only hum…