SARGENT'S PORTRAIT OF EDWIN BOOTH AT "THE
PLAYERS"
by: Thomas Bailey Aldrich
(1836-1906)
- HAT face
which no man ever saw
- And from his memory banished quite,
- With eyes in which are Hamlet's awe
- And Cardinal Richelieu's subtle light,
- Looks from this frame. A master's hand
- Has set the master player here,
- In the fair temple that he planned
- Not for himself. To us most dear
- This image of him! "It was thus
- He looked; such pallor touched his cheek;
- With that same grace he greeted us--
- Nay, 't is the man, could it but speak!"
- Sad words that shall be said some day--
- Far fall the day! O cruel Time,
- Whose breath sweeps mortal things away,
- Spare long this image of his prime,
- That others standing in the place
- Where, save as ghosts, we come no more,
- May know what sweet majestic face
- The gentle Prince of Players wore!
"Sargent's Portrait of Edwin
Booth at 'The Players'" is reprinted from THE SISTERS'
TRAGEDY WITH OTHER POEMS,LYRICAL AND DRAMATIC. Thomas Bailey
Aldrich. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1891. |
MORE POEMS BY THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH |
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