Collected poems Author:Edwin Arlington Robinson Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: He may be near us, dreaming yet Of unrepented rouge and coral; Or in a grave without a name May be as far off as a moral. BEWICK FINZER Time was when ... more »his half million drew The breath of six per cent; But soon the worm of what-was-not Fed hard on his content; And something crumbled in his brain When his half million went. Time passed, and filled along with his The place of many more; Time came, and hardly one of us Had credence to restore, From what appeared one day, the man Whom we had known before. The broken voice, the withered neck, The coat worn out with care, The cleanliness of indigence, The brilliance of despair, The fond imponderable dreams Of affluence,—all were there. Poor Finzer, with his dreams and schemes, Fares hard now in the race, With heart and eye that have a task When he looks in the face Of one who might so easily Have been in Finzcr's place. He comes unfailing for the loan We give and then forget; He comes, and probably for years Will he be coming yet,— Familiar as an old mistake, And futile as regret. BOKARDO Well, Bokardo, here we are; Make yourself at home. Look around—you haven't far To look—and why be dumb! Not the place that used to be, Not so many things to see; But there's room for you and me. And you—you've coma Talk a little; or, if not, Show me with a sign Why it was that you forgot What was yours and mine. Friends, I gather, are small things In an age when coins are kings; Even at that, one hardly flings Friends before swine. Rather strong? I knew as much, For it made you speak. No offense to swine, as such, But why this hide-and-seek I You have something on your side, And you wish you might have died, So you tell me. And you tried ...« less