At the Sarah Bernhardt Theatre

Florence Earle Coates (1850–1927)

Poems β€” Volume II

NOTHING that man's creative mind hath wroughtIs wholly foreign to the mind of man:He looks before and after; in his spanOf life infinities of life are caught,β€”Brooding, mysterious, and travail-fraught,β€”And near and distant answer, as they can,Enkindled at the flame PrometheanOf world-embracing, heaven-illumined Thought!

Last night a woman played in Paris hereThe rΓ΄le of Hamlet, each distinctive grace,By genius all-subduing and sublime,Made native in an alien land and time,β€”As though she, listening with accustomed ear,Had learned of English Shakespeare, face to face!