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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE ROOM OF MIRRORS, by EDGAR LEE MASTERS Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: I saw a room where many feet were dancing Last Line: What is this room of mirrors? Who can say? Subject(s): Dancing & Dancers | |||
I saw a room where many feet were dancing. The ceiling and the wall were mirrors glancing Both flames of candles and the heaven's light, Though windows there were none for air or flight. The room was in a form polygonal Reached by a little door and narrow hall. One could behold them enter for the dance, And waken as it were out of a trance, And either singly or with some one whirl: The old, the young, full livers, boy and girl. And every panel of the room was just A mirrored door through which a hand was thrust Here, there, around the room, a soul to seize Whereat a scream would rise, but no surcease Of music or of dancing, save by him Drawn through the mirrored panel to the dim And unknown space behind the flashing mirrors, And by his partner struck through by the terrors Of sudden loss. And looking I could see That scarcely any dancer here could free His eyes from off the mirrors, but would gaze Upon himself or others, till a craze Shone in his eyes thus to anticipate The hand that took each dancer soon or late. Some analyzed themselves, some only glanced, Some stared and paled and then more madly danced. One dancer only never looked at all. He seemed soul captured by the carnival. There were so many dancers there he loved, He was so greatly by the music moved, He had no time to study his own face There in the mirrors as from place to place He quickly danced. Until I saw at last This dancer by the whirling dancers cast Face full against a mirrored panel where Before he could look at himself or stare He plunged through to the other side -- and quick, As water closes when you lift the stick, The mirrored panel swung in place and left No trace of him, as 'twere a magic trick. But all his partners thus so soon bereft Went dancing to the music as before. But I saw faces in that mirrored door Anatomizing their forced smiles and watching Their faces over shoulders, even matching Their terror with each other's to repress A growing fear in seeing it was less Than some one else's, or to ease despair By looking in a face who did not care, While watching for the hand that through some door Caught a poor dancer from the dancing floor With every time-beat of the orchestra. What is this room of mirrors? Who can say? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FAMED DANCER DIES OF PHOSPHORUS POISONING by RICHARD HOWARD ROSE AND MURRAY by CONRAD AIKEN A DANCER'S LIFE by DONALD JUSTICE DANCING WITH THE DOG by SUSAN KENNEDY SONG FROM A COUNTRY FAIR by LEONIE ADAMS THE CHILDREN DANCING by LAURENCE BINYON SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: ALEXANDER THROCKMORTON by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |
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