O had I known that thus it happens...

O had I known that thus it happens, When first I started, that at will Your lines with blood in them destroy you, Roll up into your throat and kill, My answer to this kind of joking Had been a most decisive 'no'. So distant was the start, so timid The first approach-what could one know? But older age is Rome, demanding From actors not a gaudy blend Of props and reading, but in earnest A tragedy, with tragic end. A slave is sent to the arena When feeling has produced a line. Tnen breathing soil and fate take over And art has done and must resign.