The Golden Darkness/At a Vaudeville

AT A VAUDEVILLE.

The stage was dark, but in one corner flared
A spotlight's moon of gold; into it came
A spirit clothed in stars and dark blue flame,
That deeper glowed than night had ever dared;

The moon fares in the sky, but here there fared
A bit of sky that sang within the moon,
Of hearts that break in spring and know not June,
Or hearts that ache with tenderness unshared,—

Sang till her own heart, broken, winged with song,
Floated above dark heads and to them told—
These silent lives of tragedy and wrong—
How lips may quiver though the sky be blue,

How eyes may blur with tears though moons be gold,
How hearts among the stars are broken, too!