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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TO CHARLOTTE CUSHMAN, by ELIZA COOK Poet's Biography First Line: I thought thee wondrous when thy soul portrayed Last Line: May yield, perchance, a richer tribute still | |||
ON SEEING HER PLAY "BIANCA" IN MILMAN'S TRAGEDY OF "FAZIO." I thought thee wondrous when thy soul portrayed The youth Verona bragged of; and the love Of glowing, southern blood by thee was made Entrancing as the breath of orange-grove. I felt the spirit of the great was thine: In the fond Boy's devotion and despair; I knew thou wert a pilgrim at the shrine Where God's high ministers alone repair, No rote-learned sighing filled thy doting moans; Thy grief was heavy as thy joy was light; Passion and Poesy were in thy tones, And Mind flashed forth in its electric might. I had seen many "fret and strut their hour;" But my brain never had become such slave To Fiction, as it did beneath thy power; Nor owned such homage as to thee it gave. I did not think thou couldst arouse a throb Of deeper, stronger beating in my heart; I did not deem thou couldst awake the sob Of choking fulness, and convulsive start. But thy pale madness, and thy gasping woe, That breathed the torture of Bianca's pain; Oh! never would my bosom ask to know Such sad and bitter sympathy again! When the wife's anguish sears thy hopeless cheek, Let crowds behold and laud thee as they will; But this poor breast, in shunning what they seek, May yield, perchance, a richer tribute still. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest... |
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