Page:Collected poems Robinson, Edwin Arlington.djvu/144

 Lives here in hell, shall not the other half Do any more than just for conscience' sake Be miserable? Is this the way for us To lead these creatures up to find the light,— Or to be drawn down surely to the dark Again? Which is it? What does the child say? "But let us not make riot for the child Untaught, nor let us hold that we may read The sun but through the shadows; nor, again, Be we forgetful ever that we keep The shadows on their side. For evidence, I might go back a little to the days When I had hounds and credit, and grave friends To borrow my books and set wet glasses on them, And other friends of all sorts, grave and gay, Of whom one woman and one man stand out From all the rest, this morning. The man said One day, as we were riding, 'Now, you see, There goes a woman cursed with happiness: Beauty and wealth, health, horses,—everything That she could ask, or we could ask, is hers, Except an inward eye for the dim fact Of what this dark world is. The cleverness God gave her—or the devil—cautions her That she must keep the china cup of life Filled somehow, and she fills it—runs it over— Claps her white hands while some one does the sopping With fingers made, she thinks, for just that purpose, Giggles and eats and reads and goes to church, Makes pretty little penitential prayers, And has an eighteen-carat crucifix Wrapped up in chamois-skin. She gives enough, You say; but what is giving like hers worth?