 | The poems of Thomas Bailey Aldrich |  |
REALISM
Romance beside his unstrung luteLies stricken mute.
The old-time fire, the antique grace,
You will not find them anywhere.
To-day we breathe a commonplace,
Polemic, scientific air:
We strip Illusion of her veil;
We vivisect the nightingale
To probe the secret of his note.
The Muse in alien ways remote
Goes wandering.
| The poems of Thomas Bailey Aldrich | |