Page:Collected poems Robinson, Edwin Arlington.djvu/249

 And said he'd be no more a clown, While others drew the breath of battle.— 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 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. 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, Beloved of none, forgot by many, Dismissed as an inferior wraith, Reborn may be as great as any.