On Seeing Mrs Kemble in Yarico

On Seeing Mrs Kemble in Yarico - meaning Summary

Art Converts the Skeptic

In this brief lyric Burns addresses an actress, Mrs Kemble, whose performance so powerfully expresses the sorrow of Yarico that it overturns his skepticism. He likens his previous doubt about miracles to disbelief in Moses and his rod, then admits that the singer’s "Yarico's sweet notes of grief" made even a rock weep. The poem registers the sudden conversion of a rational observer through the force of theatrical empathy, suggesting that art can provoke real feeling and moral awareness in a hardened spectator.