Next year will bring no robins round the door,

And April will not have her ancient way,

The hedge will bear no blossoms any more,

The earth will not be green for living men,—

For Spring will not pass by this way again!...

[55]

[55]

A GHOST OUT OF STRATFORD

For all the crowd that packed the house to-night,

Marked you the vacant seat none came to claim,...

The fourth row from the front, and to the right?...

Vacant, I call it now.... But I could name

A thing that happened when the lights were off,

Of one who walked in buckles down the aisle,

Wearing a great hat that he scorned to doff,

And richly kerchiefed, wrist and neck in style.

Once in the play—I swear it—once I heard,

Along the tumult of our loud applause,

A sly and ghostly chuckle at a word

That Falstaff mouthed with those outrageous jaws ...

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