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Home  »  library  »  Song  »  Burton Egbert Stevenson (1872–1962)

C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Burton Egbert Stevenson (1872–1962)

After the Play

MID the tawdry purple and tinsel bright,

With a mimic crowd bowing low at his feet,

In crown and sceptre of gilt bedight,

And a poor robe falling in fold and pleat,

He stalks on the stage and takes a seat.

Ah well, let him prosper while he may:

The curtain’s soon down, for the hours are fleet,

And the king’s but a beggar after the play.

In his borrowed plumage, poor shallow cheat,

He struts the stage with a strange conceit;

But let him prosper while he may,

The king’s but a beggar after the play.