Medium
Identificação
[BNP/E3, 78 – 14-15]
Delirium
Comedy.
I.
Once in a theatre comic
’Tween acts I pondered to see
On a column sculptured, wide and comic,
The grinning mask of Comedy;
And broad and wild in satyr-glee,
The grinning face of Comedy.
II.
“Ah,” said I, “face merry and comic,
There is happiness in thee,
Few faces like thine, wide-mouth'd and comic,
Oh, grinning face of Comedy;
Boisterously wrinkled, ugly and free,
The grinning mask of Comedy.”
III.
But as I gazed at the face that smiled,
With mine eyes half-dreamfully,
“Ah,” said I, “it is forced and wild,
Untrue smile of pitiless glee;
Forcedly wrinkled, unreal, unfree,
Hard-grinning mask of Comedy.”
[15r]
Comedy – 2.
IV.
And I trembled — now it no longer smiled,
It had forcedly smiled — now not even so.
Oh, fearful face, terribly wild,
Terribly silent face or woe;
Worn, hysterical, mad, unfree,
Woe-twisted face of Comedy.
Alexander Search.
January 1906.