Page:Collected poems Robinson, Edwin Arlington.djvu/170

 Of ruin and redemption, all alike,— The truth we seek and equally the truth. We do not seek, but yet may not escape, Was never found alone through flesh contempt Or through flesh reverence. Look east and west And we may read the story : where the light Shone first the shade now darkens; where the shade Clung first, the light fights westward though the shade Still feeds, and there is yet the Orient. "But there is this to be remembered always: Whatever be the altitude you reach, You do not rise alone; nor do you fall But you drag others down to more or less Than your preferred abasement. God forbid That ever I should preach, and in my zeal Forget that I was born an humorist; But now, for once, before I go away, I beg of you to be magnanimous A moment, while I speak to please myself: "Though I have heard it variously sung That even in the fury and the clash Of battles, and the closer fights of men When silence gives the knowing world no sign, One flower there is, though crushed and cursed it be, Keeps rooted through all tumult and all scorn,— Still do I find, when I look sharply down, There's yet another flower that grows well And has the most unconscionable roots Of any weed on earth. Perennial It grows, and has the name of Selfishness; No doubt you call it Love. In either case, You propagate it with a diligence That hardly were outmeasured had its leaf