Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE ETERNAL PLAY, by RICHARD THOMAS LE GALLIENNE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE ETERNAL PLAY, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Third act of the eternal play!
Last Line: Hath still for us a stranger show.
Subject(s): Autumn; Seasons; Theater & Theaters; Fall; Stage Life


Third act of the eternal play!
In poster-like emblazonries,
"Autumn once more begins to-day" --
'Tis written all across the trees
In yellow letters like Chinese.

How many hundred centuries
Hath run this play, with ne'er a pause!
That which this living audience sees
Thrilled all the dead to wild applause --
And yet the strange old drama draws.

Not all alike adjudge the play:
Some laugh, some weep, and some there be
Deem the old classic's had its day,
And some scarce any of it see,
Nodding in witless apathy.

And others more than all the rest
One act out of the four prefer --
Spring, in her wind-flower draperies drest,
Or Summer, with her bosom bare;
Winter than these some deem more fair.

Some, mayhap melancholic, deem
Autumn the meaning of the play --
The smile that says, "'Twas all a dream!"
The sigh that says, "I can but stay
A little while, and then away;"

The rustling robe of joy that ends,
The moon-cold kiss upon the brow,
The fading sail of sea-sped friends,
The love that is another's now,
The voice that mourns, "Ah! where art thou?"

For all her purple and her gold,
Autumn hath such a tale to tell --
The tale that tells us all is told;
Yea! but she tells it wondrous well,
Weaving strange hope into her spell:

The hope that, when we sit no more
At this old play, and needs must go
Through yonder shrouded exit door,
The mystic impresario
Hath still for us a stranger show.





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