AY, an old story, yet it might Have truth in it -- who knows? Of the heroine's breaking down one night Jnst ere the curtain rose. And suddenly, when fear and doubt Had shaken every heart, There stepped an unknown actress out To take the heroine's part. But oh the magic of her face, And oh the songs she sung, And oh the rapture in the place, And oh the flowers they flung! But she never stooped: they lay all night As when she turned away And left them -- and the saddest light Shone in her eyes of gray. She gave a smile in glancing round, And sighed, one fancied, then -- But never they knew where she was bound, Or saw her face again. But the old prompter, gray and frail, They heard him murmur low: "It only could be Meg Coverdale, Died thirty years ago, "In that old part who took the town; And she was fair, as fair As when they shut the coffin down On the gleam of her golden hair; "And it wasn't hard to understand How a lass so fair as she Could never rest in the Promised Land Where none but angels be." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LAMENT by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY FULL OF LIFE NOW by WALT WHITMAN WATER FOWL by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH THE TRIUMPH OF MELANCHOLY by JAMES BEATTIE THIERRY AND THEODORET by FRANCIS BEAUMONT THE WANDERER: 1. IN ITALY: MORNING AND MEETING by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON |