AT A MOVIE THEATRE

How well he spoke who coined the phrase

The picture palace! Aye, in sooth

A palace, where men's weary days

Are crowned with kingliness of youth.

Strange palace! Crowded, airless, dim,

Where toes are trod and strained eyes smart,

We watch a wand of brightness limn

The old heroics of the heart.

Romance again hath us in thrall

And Love is sweet and always true,

And in the darkness of the hall

Hands clasp — as they were meant to do.

Remote from peevish joys and ills

Our souls, pro tem, are purged and free:

We see the sun on western hills,

The crumbling tumult of the sea.

We are the blond that maidens crave,

Well balanced at a dozen banks;

By sleight of hand we haste to save

A brown-eyed life, nor stay for thanks!

Alas, perhaps our instinct feels

Life is not all it might have been,

So we applaud fantastic reels

Of shadow, cast upon a screen!