Private Theatricals

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."