Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By Thomas BaileyAldrich

698 Quatrains

BLACK Tragedy lets slip her grim disguise

And shows you laughing lips and roguish eyes;

But when, unmasked, gay Comedy appears,

How wan her cheeks are, and what heavy tears!

TWO things there are with Memory will abide,

Whatever else befall, while life flows by:

That soft cold hand-touch at the altar side;

The thrill that shook you at your child’s first cry.

LINKED to a clod, harassed, and sad

With sordid cares, she knew not life was sweet

Who should have moved in marble halls, and had

Kings and crown-princes at her feet.

GREAT thoughts in crude, unshapely verse set forth

Lose half their preciousness, and ever must.

Unless the diamond with its own rich dust

Be cut and polished, it seems little worth.

IF my best wines mislike thy taste,

And my best service win thy frown,

Then tarry not, I bid thee haste;

There ’s many another Inn in town.