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Thomas Bailey Aldrich - Quatrains

2014-11-10 4 Dailymotion

MASKS <br /> <br />BLACK Tragedy lets slip her grim disguise <br />And shows you laughing lips and roguish eyes; <br />But when, unmasked, gay Comedy appears, <br />How wan her cheeks are, and what heavy tears! <br /> <br />MEMORIES <br /> <br />TWO things there are with Memory will abide, <br />Whatever else befall, while life flows by: <br />That soft cold hand-touch at the altar side; <br />The thrill that shook you at your child’s first cry. <br /> <br />CIRCUMSTANCE <br /> <br />LINKED to a clod, harassed, and sad <br />With sordid cares, she knew not life was sweet <br />Who should have moved in marble halls, and had <br />Kings and crown-princes at her feet. <br /> <br />ON READING —— <br /> <br />GREAT thoughts in crude, unshapely verse set forth <br />Lose half their preciousness, and ever must. <br />Unless the diamond with its own rich dust <br />Be cut and polished, it seems little worth. <br /> <br />QUITS <br /> <br />IF my best wines mislike thy taste, <br />And my best service win thy frown, <br />Then tarry not, I bid thee haste; <br />There ’s many another Inn in town.<br /><br />Thomas Bailey Aldrich<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/quatrains-3/

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