Private Theatricals

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A quite convincing axiom
  Is, "Life is like a play";
For, turning back its pages some
  Few dog-eared years away,
  I find where I
  Committed my
Love-tale--with brackets where to sigh.

I feel an idle interest
  To read again the page;
I enter, as a lover dressed,
  At twenty years of age,
  And play the part
  With throbbing heart,
And all an actor's glowing art.

And she who plays my Lady-love
  Excels!--Her loving glance
Has power her audience to move--
  I am her audience.--
  Her acting tact,
  To tell the fact,
"Brings down the house" in every act.

And often we defy the curse
  Of storms and thunder-showers,
To meet together and rehearse
  This little play of ours--
  I think, when she
  "Makes love" to me,
She kisses very naturally!

  .  .  .  .  .  .

Yes; it's convincing--rather--
  That "Life is like a play":
I am playing "Heavy Father"
  In a "Screaming Farce" to-day,
  That so "brings down
  The house," I frown,
And fain would "ring the curtain down."

© James Whitcomb Riley