►Romance beside his unstrung lute, Lies stricken
mute. The old-time
fire, the antique grace, You will not find
them anyplace, Polemic,
scientific air: We strip Illusion
of her veil; We vivisect the
nightingale To probe the
secret of his note. The Muse in alien
ways remote Goes wandering.
Aldrich,
a friend of Twain’s, was the author of The Story of a Bad Boy and An
Old Town by the Sea.