ACT V [MIDNIGHT]

by: Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836-1906)

IRST, two white arms that held him very close,

And ever closer as he drew him back

Reluctantly, the loose gold-colored hair

A thousand delicate fibers reaching out

Still to detain him; then some twenty steps

Of iron stairs winding round and down,

And ending in a narrow gallery hung

With Goblin tapestries--Andromeda

Rescued by Perseus, and the sleek Diana

With her nymphs bathing; at the farther end

A door that gave upon a starlit grove

Of citron and clipt palm-trees; then a path

As bleached as moonlight, with the shadow of leaves

Stamped black upon it; next a vine-clad length

Of solid masonry; and last of all

A Gothic archway packed with night, and then--

A sudden gleaming dagger through his heart.

• Pauline Pavlovna - Complete text of the play by Thomas Bailey Aldrich.
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