Works of Edwin Arlington Robinson

by Edwin Arlington Robinson

Came a sign from the skies;

  And we feared then to pray 15

  For the new sun to rise:

  With the King there at hand,

  Not a child stepped or stirred —

  Where the light filled the land

  And the light brought the word; 20

  For we knew then the gleam

  Though we feared then the day,

  And the dawn smote the dream

  Long ago, far away.

  But the road leads us all, 25

  For the King now is dead;

  And we know, stand or fall,

  We have shared the day’s bread.

  We may laugh down the dream,

  For the dream breaks and flies; 30

  And we trust now the gleam,

  For the gleam never dies; —

  So it’s off now the load,

  For we know the night’s call,

  And we know now the road 35

  And the road leads us all.

  Through the shine, through the rain,

  We have wrought the day’s quest;

  To the old march again

  We have earned the day’s rest; 40

  We have laughed, we have cried,

  And we’ve heard the King’s groans;

  We have fought, we have died,

  And we’ve burned the King’s bones,

  And we lift the old song 45

  Ere the night flies again,

  Where the road leads along

  Through the shine, through the rain.

  Variations of Greek Themes

  I

  A HAPPY MAN

  (Carphyllides)

  WHEN these graven lines you see,

  Traveler, do not pity me;

  Though I be among the dead,

  Let no mournful word be said.

  Children that I leave behind, 5

  And their children, all were kind;

  Near to them and to my wife,

  I was happy all my life.

  My three sons I married right,

  And their sons I rocked at night; 10

  Death nor sorrow ever brought

  Cause for one unhappy thought.

  Now, and with no need of tears,

  Here they leave me, full of years, —

  Leave me to my quiet rest 15

  In the region of the blest.

  II

  A MIGHTY RUNNER

  (Nicarchus)

  THE DAY when Charmus ran with five

  In Arcady, as I’m alive,

  He came in seventh.— “Five and one

  Make seven, you say? It can’t be done.” — 20

  Well, if you think it needs a note,

  A friend in a fur overcoat

  Ran with him, crying all the while,

  “You’ll beat ‘em, Charmus, by a mile!”

  And so he came in seventh. 25

  Therefore, good Zoilus, you see

  The thing is plain as plain can be;

  And with four more for company,

  He would have been eleventh.

  III

  THE RAVEN

  (Nicarchus)

  THE GLOOM of death is on the raven’s wing, 30

  The song of death is in the raven’s cries:

  But when Demophilus begins to sing,

  The raven dies.

  IV

  EUTYCHIDES

  (Lucilius)

  EUTYCHIDES, who wrote the songs,

  Is going down where he belongs. 35

  O you unhappy ones, beware:

  Eutychides will soon be there!

  For he is coming with twelve lyres,

  And with more than twice twelve quires

  Of the stuff that he has done 40

  In the world from which he’s gone.

  Ah, now must you know death indeed,

  For he is coming with all speed;

  And with Eutychides in Hell,

  Where’s a poor tortured soul to dwell? 45

  V

  DORICHA

  (Posidippus)

  SO now the very bones of you are gone

  Where they were dust and ashes long ago;

  And there was the last ribbon you tied on

  To bind your hair, and that is dust also;

  And somewhere there is dust that was of old 50

  A soft and scented garment that you wore —

  The same that once till dawn did closely fold

  You in with fair Charaxus, fair no more.

  But Sappho, and the white leaves of her song,

  Will make your name a word for all to learn, 55

  And all to love thereafter, even while

  It’s but a name; and this will be as long

  As there are distant ships that will return

  Again to your Naucratis and the Nile.

  VI

  THE DUST OF TIMAS

  (Sappho)

  THIS dust was Timas; and they say 60

  That almost on her wedding day

  She found her bridal home to be

  The dark house of Persephone.

  And many maidens, knowing then

  That she would not come back again, 65

  Unbound their curls; and all in tears,

  They cut them off with sharpened shears.

  VII

  ARETEMIAS

  (Antipater of Sidon)

  I’M sure I see it all now as it was,

  When first you set your foot upon the shore

  Where dim Cocytus flows for evermore, 70

  And how it came to pass

  That all those Dorian women who are there

  In Hades, and still fair,

  Came up to you, so young, and wept and smiled

  When they beheld you and your little child. 75

  And then, I’m sure, with tears upon your face

  To be in that sad place,

  You told of the two children you had borne,

  And then of Euphron, whom you leave to mourn.

  “One stays with him,” you said, 80

  “And this one I bring with me to the dead.”

  VIII

  THE OLD STORY

  (Marcus Argentarius)

  LIKE many a one, when you had gold

  Love met you smiling, we are told;

  But now that all your gold is gone,

  Love leaves you hungry and alone. 85

  And women, who have called you more

  Sweet names than ever were before,

  Will ask another now to tell

  What man you are and where you dwell.

  Was ever anyone but you 90

  So long in learning what is true?

  Must you find only at the end

  That who has nothing has no friend?

  IX

  TO-MORROW

  (Macedonius)

  TO-MORROW? Then your one word left is always now the same;

  And that’s a word that names a day that has no more a name. 95

  To-morrow, I have learned at last, is all you have to give:

  The rest will be another’s now, as long as I may live.

  You will see me in the evening? — And what evening has there been,

  Since time began with women, but old age and wrinkled skin?

  X

  LAIS TO APHRODITE

  (Plato)

  WHEN I, poor Lais, with my crown 100

  Of beauty could laugh Hellas down,

  Young lovers crowded at my door,

  Where now my lovers come no more.

  So, Goddess, you will not refuse

  A mirror that has now no use; 105

  For what I was I cannot be,

  And what I am I will not see.

  XI

  AN INSCRIPTION BY THE SEA

  (Glaucus)

  NO dust have I to cover me,

  My grave no man may show;

  My tomb is this unending sea, 110

  And I lie far below.

  My fate, O stranger, was to drown;

 
And where it was the ship went down

  Is what the sea-birds know.

  The Field of Glory

  WAR shook the land where Levi dwelt,

  And fired the dismal wrath he felt,

  That such a doom was ever wrought

  As his, to toil while others fought;

  To toil, to dream — and still to dream, 5

  With one day barren as another;

  To consummate, as it would seem,

  The dry despair of his old mother.

  Far off one afternoon began

  The sound of man destroying man; 10

  And Levi, sick with nameless rage,

  Condemned again his heritage,

  And sighed for scars that might have come,

  And would, if once he could have sundered

  Those harsh, inhering claims of home 15

  That held him while he cursed and wondered.

  Another day, and then there came,

  Rough, bloody, ribald, hungry, lame,

  But yet themselves, to Levi’s door,

  Two remnants of the day before. 20

  They laughed at him and what he sought;

  They jeered him, and his painful acre;

  But Levi knew that they had fought,

  And left their manners to their Maker.

  That night, for the grim widow’s ears, 25

  With hopes that hid themselves in fears,

  He told of arms, and fiery deeds,

  Whereat one leaps the while he reads,

  And said he’d be no more a clown,

  While others drew the breath of battle. — 30

  The mother looked him up and down,

  And laughed — a scant laugh with a rattle.

  She told him what she found to tell,

  And Levi listened, and heard well

  Some admonitions of a voice 35

  That left him no cause to rejoice. —

  He sought a friend, and found the stars,

  And prayed aloud that they should aid him;

  But they said not a word of wars,

  Or of a reason why God made him. 40

  And who’s of this or that estate

  We do not wholly calculate,

  When baffling shades that shift and cling

  Are not without their glimmering;

  When even Levi, tired of faith, 45

  Beloved of none, forgot by many,

  Dismissed as an inferior wraith,

  Reborn may be as great as any.

  Merlin

  Merlin I

  “GAWAINE, GAWAINE, what look ye for to see,

  So far beyond the faint edge of the world?

  D’ye look to see the lady Vivian,

  Pursued by divers ominous vile demons

  That have another king more fierce than ours? 5

  Or think ye that if ye look far enough

  And hard enough into the feathery west

  Ye’ll have a glimmer of the Grail itself?

  And if ye look for neither Grail nor lady,

  What look ye for to see, Gawaine, Gawaine?” 10

  So Dagonet, whom Arthur made a knight

  Because he loved him as he laughed at him,

  Intoned his idle presence on a day

  To Gawaine, who had thought himself alone,

  Had there been in him thought of anything 15

  Save what was murmured now in Camelot

  Of Merlin’s hushed and all but unconfirmed

  Appearance out of Brittany. It was heard

  At first there was a ghost in Arthur’s palace,

  But soon among the scullions and anon 20

  Among the knights a firmer credit held

  All tongues from uttering what all glances told —

  Though not for long. Gawaine, this afternoon,

  Fearing he might say more to Lancelot

  Of Merlin’s rumor-laden resurrection 25

  Than Lancelot would have an ear to cherish,

  Had sauntered off with his imagination

  To Merlin’s Rock, where now there was no Merlin

  To meditate upon a whispering town

  Below him in the silence. — Once he said 30

  To Gawaine: “You are young; and that being so,

  Behold the shining city of our dreams

  And of our King.”— “Long live the King,” said Gawaine. —

  “Long live the King,” said Merlin after him;

  “Better for me that I shall not be King; 35

  Wherefore I say again, Long live the King,

  And add, God save him, also, and all kings —

  All kings and queens. I speak in general.

  Kings have I known that were but weary men

  With no stout appetite for more than peace 40

  That was not made for them.”— “Nor were they made

  For kings,” Gawaine said, laughing.— “You are young,

  Gawaine, and you may one day hold the world

  Between your fingers, knowing not what it is

  That you are holding. Better for you and me, 45

  I think, that we shall not be kings.”

  Gawaine,

  Remembering Merlin’s words of long ago,

  Frowned as he thought, and having frowned again,

  He smiled and threw an acorn at a lizard: 50

  “There’s more afoot and in the air to-day

  Than what is good for Camelot. Merlin

  May or may not know all, but he said well

  To say to me that he would not be King.

  Nor more would I be King.” Far down he gazed 55

  On Camelot, until he made of it

  A phantom town of many stillnesses,

  Not reared for men to dwell in, or for kings

  To reign in, without omens and obscure

  Familiars to bring terror to their days; 60

  For though a knight, and one as hard at arms

  As any, save the fate-begotten few

  That all acknowledged or in envy loathed,

  He felt a foreign sort of creeping up

  And down him, as of moist things in the dark, — 65

  When Dagonet, coming on him unawares,

  Presuming on his title of Sir Fool,

  Addressed him and crooned on till he was done:

  “What look ye for to see, Gawaine, Gawaine?”

  “Sir Dagonet, you best and wariest 70

  Of all dishonest men, I look through Time,

  For sight of what it is that is to be.

  I look to see it, though I see it not.

  I see a town down there that holds a king,

  And over it I see a few small clouds — 75

  Like feathers in the west, as you observe;

  And I shall see no more this afternoon

  Than what there is around us every day,

  Unless you have a skill that I have not

  To ferret the invisible for rats.” 80

  “If you see what’s around us every day,

  You need no other showing to go mad.

  Remember that and take it home with you;

  And say tonight, ‘I had it of a fool —

  With no immediate obliquity 85

  For this one or for that one, or for me.’”

  Gawaine, having risen, eyed the fool curiously:

  “I’ll not forget I had it of a knight,

  Whose only folly is to fool himself;

  And as for making other men to laugh, 90

  And so forget their sins and selves a little,

  There’s no great folly there. So keep it up,

  As long as you’ve a legend or a song,

  And have whatever sport of us you like

  Till havoc is the word and we fall howling. 95

  For I’ve a guess there may not be so loud

  A sound of laughing here in Camelot

  When Merlin goes again to his gay grave

  In Brittany. To mention lesser terrors,

  Men say his beard is gone
.” 100

  “Do men say that?”

  A twitch of an impatient weariness

  Played for a moment over the lean face

  Of Dagonet, who reasoned inwardly:

  “The friendly zeal of this inquiring knight 105

  Will overtake his tact and leave it squealing,

  One of these days.” — Gawaine looked hard at him:

  “If I be too familiar with a fool,

  I’m on the way to be another fool,”

  He mused, and owned a rueful qualm within him: 110

  “Yes, Dagonet,” he ventured, with a laugh,

  “Men tell me that his beard has vanished wholly,

  And that he shines now as the Lord’s anointed,

  And wears the valiance of an ageless youth

  Crowned with a glory of eternal peace.” 115

  Dagonet, smiling strangely, shook his head:

  “I grant your valiance of a kind of youth

  To Merlin, but your crown of peace I question;

  For, though I know no more than any churl

  Who pinches any chambermaid soever 120

  In the King’s palace, I look not to Merlin

  For peace, when out of his peculiar tomb

  He comes again to Camelot. Time swings

  A mighty scythe, and some day all your peace

  Goes down before its edge like so much clover. 125

  No, it is not for peace that Merlin comes,

  Without a trumpet — and without a beard,

  If what you say men say of him be true —

  Nor yet for sudden war.”

  Gawaine, for a moment, 130

  Met then the ambiguous gaze of Dagonet,

  And, making nothing of it, looked abroad

  As if at something cheerful on all sides,

  And back again to the fool’s unasking eyes:

  “Well, Dagonet, if Merlin would have peace, 135

  Let Merlin stay away from Brittany,”

  Said he, with admiration for the man

  Whom Folly called a fool: “And we have known him;

  We knew him once when he knew everything.”

  “He knew as much as God would let him know 140