The Drama Reviewer
For several years I wrote reviews of plays
For a newspaper in Connecticut,
And she would help me in instructive ways
To frame their matter, indicating what
Was most essential for them and what she
Had seen and I had altogether missed
In each performance, because generally
I failed to look behind the forward gist.
I rarely caught the life that she discerned
In slight inflections, the unspoken word,
The way an actress smiled through tears or turned
Her head at some small sound I had not heard.
Provided all this treasure, I would use
The least of it to write my brief reviews