Page:Collected poems Robinson, Edwin Arlington.djvu/227

 Unspeakably revealed, that finally Had reconciled the grim probationing Of wisdom with unalterable faith, But she could feel not knowing what it was, For the sheer freedom of it a new joy That humanized the latent wizardry Of his prophetic voice and put for it The man within the music. So it came To pass, like many a long-compelled emprise That with its first accomplishment almost Annihilates its own severity, That she could find, whenever she might look, The certified achievement of a love That had endured, self-guarded and supreme, To the glad end of all that wavering; And she could see that now the flickering world Of autumn was awake with sudden, bloom. New-born, perforce, of a slow bourgeoning. And she had found what more than half had been The grave-deluded, flesh-bewildered fear Which men and women struggle to call faith, To be the paid progression to an end Whereat she knew the foresight and the strength To glorify the gift of what was hers, To vindicate the truth of what she was. And had it come to her so suddenly? There was a pity and a weariness In asking that, and a great needlessness; For now there were no wretched quivering strings That held her to the churchyard any more: There were no thoughts that flapped themselves like bats Around her any more. The shield of love Was clean, and she had paid enough to learn