Page:Collected poems Robinson, Edwin Arlington.djvu/147

 "So in one afternoon you see we have The child in absence or,—to say the least, In ominous defect,—and in excess Commensurate, likewise. Now the question is, Not which was right and which was wrong, for each, By virtue of one-sidedness, was both; But rather to my mind, as heretofore— Is it better to be blinded by the lights, Or by the shadows ? By the lights, you say? The shadows are all devils, and the lights Gleam guiding and eternal? Very good; But while you say so do not quite forget That sunshine has a devil of its own, And one that we, for the great craft of him, But vaguely recognize. The marvel is That this persuasive and especial devil, By grace of his extreme transparency, Precludes all common vision of him; yet There is one way to glimpse him and a way, As I believe, to test him,—granted once That we have ousted prejudice, which means That we have made magnanimous advance Through self-acquaintance. Not an easy thing For some of us; impossible, may be, For most of us: the woman and the man I cited, for example, would have wrought The most intractable conglomerate Of everything, if they had set themselves To analyze themselves and not each other; If only for the sake of self-respect, They would have come to no place but the same Wherefrom they started; one would have lived awhile In paradise without defending it, And one in hell without enjoying it; And each had been dissuaded neither more