A Face In A Book

Richard Le Gallienne 1866 (Liverpool) – 1947



In an old book I found her face
Writ by a dead man long ago -
I found, and then I lost the place;
So nothing but her face I know,
And her soft name writ fair below.
  
Even if she lived I cannot learn,
Or but a dead man's dream she were;
Page after yellow page I turn,
But cannot come again to her,
Although I know she must be there.
  
On other books of other men,
Far in the night, year-long, I pore,
Hoping to find her face again,
Too fair a face to see no more -
And 'twas so soft a name she bore.
  
Sometimes I think the book was Youth,
And the dead man that wrote it I,
The face was Beauty, the name Truth -
And thus, with an unseeing eye,
I pass the long-sought image by.
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Submitted on August 03, 2020

Modified on March 15, 2023

44 sec read
9

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABB CDCDX EFEFF GHGHH
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 660
Words 146
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 5, 5, 5, 5

Richard Le Gallienne

Richard Le Gallienne was an English author and poet. The American actress Eva Le Gallienne was his daughter, by his second marriage. more…

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