Page:Collected poems Robinson, Edwin Arlington.djvu/335

 He knew devoutly what he thought Of us and of our ridicule; He knew that we must all be taught Like little children in a school. We gave a glamour to the task That he encountered and saw through, But little of us did he ask, And little did we ever do. And what appears if we review The season when we railed and chaffed ? It is the face of one who knew That we were learning while we laughed. The face that in our vision feels Again the venom that we flung, Transfigured to the world reveals The vigilance to which we clung. Shrewd, hallowed, harassed, and among The mysteries that are untold, The face we see was never young Nor could it wholly have been old. For he, to whom we had applied Our shopman's test of age and worth, Was elemental when he died, As he was ancient at his birth : The saddest among kings of earth, Bowed with a galling crown, this man Met rancor with a cryptic mirth, Laconic and Olympian. The love, the grandeur, and the fame Are bounded by the world alone;