A quite convincing axiom <br />Is, 'Life is like a play'; <br />For, turning back its pages some <br />Few dog-eared years away, <br />I find where I <br />Committed my <br />Love-tale--with brackets where to sigh. <br /> <br />I feel an idle interest <br />To read again the page; <br />I enter, as a lover dressed, <br />At twenty years of age, <br />And play the part <br />With throbbing heart, <br />And all an actor's glowing art. <br /> <br />And she who plays my Lady-love <br />Excels!--Her loving glance <br />Has power her audience to move-- <br />I am her audience.-- <br />Her acting tact, <br />To tell the fact, <br />'Brings down the house' in every act. <br /> <br />And often we defy the curse <br />Of storms and thunder-showers, <br />To meet together and rehearse <br />This little play of ours-- <br />I think, when she <br />'Makes love' to me, <br />She kisses very naturally! <br /> <br />. . . . . . <br /> <br />Yes; it's convincing--rather-- <br />That 'Life is like a play': <br />I am playing 'Heavy Father' <br />In a 'Screaming Farce' to-day, <br />That so 'brings down <br />The house,' I frown, <br />And fain would 'ring the curtain down.'<br /><br />James Whitcomb Riley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/private-theatricals/
