 | The new day : a poem in songs and sonnets |  |
48
AT THE PLAY.
(SALVINI.)
I saw Othello crouch across the stageWith quick, hot breaths, arched neck, and eyes all white,
And fingers curved to claws before my sight;
I heard his sob and scream of brutal rage,
When, like a tiger leaping from a ledge
Upon his prey, quick as a flash of light
He leaped on Iago: then in shivering fright
I saw him cower, as against the cage
A tiger springs, then cowers tremulous.
So sits my soul apart,—as I do here,
Beholding Shakespeare's thought before me move,—
Calm doth my soul behold my passion thus
Beat vainly 'gainst expression. Voice nor tear
Can tell the wild, great agony of my love.
60
“THERE WAS JOY IN ALL.”
There was joy in all, but I might not win it.I looked from the window on meadow and wood,
On fair green grass that the sun made white;
Beyond the river the mountain stood,—
Blue was the mountain, the river was bright:
I looked on the land and it was not good;
I loved not the land, for thou wert not in it.
| The new day : a poem in songs and sonnets | |