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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE WORLD PLAY, by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON Poet's Biography First Line: The entrance-price you willy-nilly pay Last Line: Are shaken by its moods, -- mirth, anguish, mystery. Subject(s): Art & Artists; Comedy; Earth; Plays & Playwrights ; Tragedy; World; Dramatists | |||
THE entrance-price you willy-nilly pay, Sit with your kind, take pleasure, if you may, Or puzzle at the meaning of the play. COMEDY The humors of the time, the painted show Of character, the Attic salt of wit; Now, laughter lifts it high, now, tender woe For a pale moment o'er the stage must flit, To make the main plot merrier; maids and men Teach life is sweet and love may come again. MELODRAMA See how the swashbucklers swagger! Hark to the villain's dark cry! Much is a-doing and many are ruing. Innocents, destined to die, Haply, with thrust of a dagger. Evil frustrate and virtue tried and true, Romance, adventure, sleight, and derring-do. The earth's wide passions served up hot for you! FARCE See the buffoon's fat cheeks ballooning out! Thwack! the lath sword descends, guffaws are rife 'Midst gallery gods, with many a boorish shout Of approbation. Yet, 'tis part of life, And honest too, -- the grammarless, crude heart Of one's own kinsmen, and this stir-about Is wholesome, though it lack the soul of art. TRAGEDY Slow evolution to a fateful close; Deepest of dramas knocking at our soul; Glints of the gay, but gloom that spreads and grows Toward some sardonic end, the gruesome goal Of all the light, the motion, and the glee Pranked out high-heartedly. Behind man's quest and woman's sacrifice, Bravery and risk and lure of ardent eyes, Quieting the stir, Mingling mold-odors with love's sweetest myrrh, For ever looms and glooms the sepulcher! EPILOGUE Great Watcher of the whole, the motley shift Of play and counterplot, sole Critic, who Must understand, because Creator too; Prompter and playwright both: the curtains lift And fall, while joy and sorrow interweave; We know full well what time to smile or grieve, No more; the ultimate meaning's shut from view. The world-play act by act moves on, and we Are shaken by its moods, -- mirth, anguish, mystery. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ENDING WITH A LINE FROM LEAR by MARVIN BELL ENDING WITH A LINE FROM LEAR by MARVIN BELL SOUNDS OF THE RESURRECTED DEAD MAN'S FOOTSTEPS (#20): 1. SHAKESPEARE by MARVIN BELL SOUNDS OF THE RESURRECTED DEAD MAN'S FOOTSTEPS (#20): 1. SHAKESPEARE by MARVIN BELL SOUNDS OF THE RESURRECTED DEAD MAN'S FOOTSTEPS (#20): 2. SHAKESPEARE by MARVIN BELL SOUNDS OF THE RESURRECTED DEAD MAN'S FOOTSTEPS (#20): 2. SHAKESPEARE by MARVIN BELL |
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