Comedy
And there it is; another curtain down, another program just to throw away. But, never mind, I’ve had my trip to town and any critic would have loved the play.
Kay Sage
SourceLicence:Public domain (US, unrenewed)
And there it is; another curtain down, another program just to throw away. But, never mind, I’ve had my trip to town and any critic would have loved the play.
Imagine leaving the theater just as the lights come up. The curtain has fallen, the program in your hand is already trash, and the evening is over. That is the moment Kay Sage catches here. The speaker sounds breezy and unbothered: never mind, she's had her trip to town, and any critic would have loved the play.
But the cheerfulness feels a little thin. The language is so flat and tidy that it seems to be working hard to stay that way. A program "just to throw away" suggests how disposable the whole experience was, and the speaker's insistence that the play was good enough for a critic sounds more like reassurance than real enjoyment. The title adds a quiet irony, since the mood is closer to a polite letdown than to comedy.
The poem may be about a play, or it may be about something bigger that ends the same way: a brief escape, quickly over, with a shrug as the only response. That is the poem's suggestion rather than a stated fact. The tone stays light, but a faint loneliness sits underneath it.