TO MODJESKA
by: Richard Watson Gilder
(1844-1909)
- HERE
are four sisters known to mortals well,
- Whose names are Joy and Sorrow, Death, and Love:
- This last it was who did my footsteps move
- To where the other deep-eyed sisters dwell.
- To-night, or ere yon painted curtain fell,
- These, one by one, before my eyes did rove
- Through the brave mimic world that Shakspere
wove.
- Lady! thy art, thy passion were the spell
- That held me, and still holds; for thou dost show,
- With those most high each in his sovereign art,--
- Shakspere supreme, Beethoven
and Angelo,--
- Great art and passion are one. Thine too the part
- To prove that still for him the laurels grow
- Who reaches through the mind to pluck the heart.
"To Modjeska" is reprinted
from Scribner's Monthly, vol. 17, issue 3 (January 1879). |
MORE POEMS BY RICHARD WATSON GILDER |
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