Avon's Harvest Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKL MNOKPCJQRSTUVKWXBO YJZA2OB2TNC2OTC2PTD2 E2F2G2H2I2J2K2L2M2N2 QO2P2KWOK2KQ2OQ2R2E2 OKE2S2T2DU2 OBLHJOQV2KUDLW2X2OY2 X2OWKZ2LA3FB3KCTC3TV Y2 Q2LX2U2LVD3E3WCEA2Q2 Z ZB3OF3LG3OOKL CAPKH3CF2Y2B2S2W2W2 I3F2E3VOJ3K3CEL3M3N3 M3M3E2O3M3KM3P3CKQ3M 3VR3X2OLKLTS3LM3T3M3 U3QDM3M3VV3X2W3M3X3T A2Y3OLKA2OB2 FZ3A4M3KM3B4KC4CM3M3 M3KK OF2I2D4M3E4F4TCTB2UO COCT2E2M2M3D4A2VM2UK G4KU2M3O E2KA2A2H4X2I4J4 OM3CDK4M3OL4CB2OY3OE 2T3M4LM3C2A2M2 E2M3M3I4N4M2M2D4O4VK M3M3OQCQCM2L2Y2LQOCY 2I4 X3TI4CP4X3VCM3CB3TM3 CM3X3M2D4KLKM2Y3P3M3 M3M3Q4R4M3M2M3OM3M3Q 4S4T4F2OOE3ATU4V4H4M 3K3U4OA2X3M3M3TTM3E3 CV4M3M3X3M2W4OL3OM3C M3M3OX4CE2X3M3M2M3M3 M3X3CQL3L3M3M3D4A2M3 M3Y3M3I4X3M3Y4M2M2M2 I4Z4H2AM3EM3M3OOA2E2 M3H4N4D4TM2TM2COM3OM 2Y2M3EOM3M3X3M3M3M3H 4LTM3Q2M3N3I4Y3M3DQD M3M3M3M2ZM3CM3E2TX3M 3X3LM3M3M3E3M3 LV4 M3CM3H4E2X3X3X3E2U4O OA2X3X3P3X3M3X4LX3QL 3 Q2OLTM3Q2X3X3Q X3M3Q2S4X3Q2G3X3X3X3 J2T2ID4X3E2X3M2 X3A2QX3X3X3FO OX3X3Q4X3X3M3 OH2X3T2X3M2 Q2X3 C2F2Y2X3X3CS4QM3M3M2 X3X3M4N4M2 X3OEM2Y2OTX3LTTOX3X3 S4CC3TTLCQ4H2X3X3A2S 4X3H2X3A2X3A2FTN4X3X 3OO4X3Q2X3OQX3COCX3W 4E2H4OM2LX3A2M3X3X3O X3X3X3TA2CTM3CX3X3X3 OX3H4A2L3A2M2X3EX3X3 M3OL Y3OX3E2LX3CTOX3X3OX3 S2M3T2M2I2LX3OOX3E2X 3X3OOY3X3X3X3X3X3X3H 3H3OY2S2 X3CO X3X3X3X3H2Z4DX3OOX3S 2OX3OX3LOH4OM3OB3X3O W4OZ4X3DX3OX3CDT3X3O Y2N4DOX3U3Y2X3Z4X3X3 OX3X3D4OX3N4CTD4X3CC X3 M3C2CY3X3OX3R3 FQ2E3Y2DX3CCX3A2OX3T X3X3X3OCS2X3X3X3A2CX 3CX3X3OCOTEA2TOOX3B3 CA2Q2CX3Y2X3M2CA2X3C A2X3X3U4X3A2X3EX3TB3 X3CX3X3O H3X3V4OA2CX3D3V4A2OO X3X3C B3A2OA2D4OCX3 O X3I2TX3 X3X3CTCQGCX3LM2CX3X3 X3X3M2A4M2X3H2OH4CB3 X3 CX3X3EU3OAX3OCX3X3M2 X3A3Y2QQB3 R3B3X3A2X3X3X3X3CX3C X3A2CTX3OOCX3X3X3LLQ 4X3A2OCX3X3H2X3OCEX3 R2X3CC

Fear like a living fire that only death	A
Might one day cool had now in Avon's eyes	B
Been witness for so long of an invasion	C
That made of a gay friend whom we had known	D
Almost a memory wore no other name	E
As yet for us than fear Another man	F
Than Avon might have given to us at least	G
A futile opportunity for words	H
We might regret But Avon since it happened	I
Fed with his unrevealing reticence	J
The fire of death we saw that horribly	K
Consumed him while he crumbled and said nothing	L
	-
So many a time had I been on the edge	M
And off again of a foremeasured fall	N
Into the darkness and discomfiture	O
Of his oblique rebuff that finally	K
My silence honored his holding itself	P
Away from a gratuitous intrusion	C
That likely would have widened a new distance	J
Already wide enough if not so new	Q
But there are seeming parallels in space	R
That may converge in time and so it was	S
I walked with Avon fought and pondered with him	T
While he made out a case for So and so	U
Or slaughtered What's his name in his old way	V
With a new difference Nothing in Avon lately	K
Was or was ever again to be for us	W
Like him that we remembered and all the while	X
We saw that fire at work within his eyes	B
And had no glimpse of what was burning there	O
	-
So for a year it went and so it went	Y
For half another year when all at once	J
At someone's tinkling afternoon at home	Z
I saw that in the eyes of Avon's wife	A2
The fire that I had met the day before	O
In his had found another living fuel	B2
To look at her and then to think of him	T
And thereupon to contemplate the fall	N
Of a dim curtain over the dark end	C2
Of a dark play required of me no more	O
Clairvoyance than a man who cannot swim	T
Will exercise in seeing that his friend	C2
Off shore will drown except he save himself	P
To her I could say nothing and to him	T
No more than tallied with a long belief	D2
That I should only have it back again	E2
For my chagrin to ruminate upon	F2
Ingloriously for the still time it starved	G2
And that would be for me as long a time	H2
As I remembered Avon who is yet	I2
Not quite forgotten On the other hand	J2
For saying nothing I might have with me always	K2
An injured and recriminating ghost	L2
Of a dead friend The more I pondered it	M2
The more I knew there was not much to lose	N2
Albeit for one whose delving hitherto	Q
Had been a forage of his own affairs	O2
The quest however golden the reward	P2
Was irksome and as Avon suddenly	K
And soon was driven to let me see was needless	W
It seemed an age ago that we were there	O
One evening in the room that in the days	K2
When they could laugh he called the Library	K
He calls it that you understand she said	Q2
Because the dictionary always lives here	O
He's not a man of books yet he can read	Q2
And write He learned it all at school He smiled	R2
And answered with a fervor that rang then	E2
Superfluous Had I learned a little more	O
At school it might have been as well for me	K
And I remember now that he paused then	E2
Leaving a silence that one had to break	S2
But this was long ago and there was now	T2
No laughing in that house We were alone	D
This time and it was Avon's time to talk	U2
	-
I waited and anon became aware	O
That I was looking less at Avon's eyes	B
Than at the dictionary like one asking	L
Already why we make so much of words	H
That have so little weight in the true balance	J
Your name is Resignation for an hour	O
He said and I'm a little sorry for you	Q
So be resigned I shall not praise your work	V2
Or strive in any way to make you happy	K
My purpose only is to make you know	U
How clearly I have known that you have known	D
There was a reason waited on your coming	L
And if it's in me to see clear enough	W2
To fish the reason out of a black well	X2
Where you see only a dim sort of glimmer	O
That has for you no light	Y2
	-
I see the well	X2
I said but there's a doubt about the glimmer	O
Say nothing of the light I'm at your service	W
And though you say that I shall not be happy	K
I shall be if in some way I may serve	Z2
To tell you fairly now that I know nothing	L
Is nothing more than fair You know as much	A3
As any man alive save only one man	F
If he's alive Whether he lives or not	B3
Is rather for time to answer than for me	K
And that's a reason or a part of one	C
For your appearance here You do not know him	T
And even if you should pass him in the street	C3
He might go by without your feeling him	T
Between you and the world I cannot say	V
Whether he would but I suppose he might	Y2
	-
And I suppose you might if urged I said	Q2
Say in what water it is that we are fishing	L
You that have reasons hidden in a well	X2
Not mentioning all your nameless friends that walk	U2
The streets and are not either dead or living	L
For company are surely one would say	V
To be forgiven if you may seem distraught	D3
I mean distrait I don't know what I mean	E3
I only know that I am at your service	W
Always yet with a special reservation	C
That you may deem eccentric All the same	E
Unless your living dead man comes to life	A2
Or is less indiscriminately dead	Q2
I shall go home	Z
	-
No you will not go home	Z
Said Avon or I beg that you will not	B3
So saying he went slowly to the door	O
And turned the key Forgive me and my manners	F3
But I would be alone with you this evening	L
The key as you observe is in the lock	G3
And you may sit between me and the door	O
Or where you will You have my word of honor	O
That I would spare you the least injury	K
That might attend your presence here this evening	L
	-
I thank you for your soothing introduction	C
Avon I said Go on The Lord giveth	A
The Lord taketh away I trust myself	P
Always to you and to your courtesy	K
Only remember that I cling somewhat	H3
Affectionately to the old tradition	C
I understand you and your part said Avon	F2
And I dare say it's well enough tonight	Y2
We play around the circumstance a little	B2
I've read of men that half way to the stake	S2
Would have their little joke It's well enough	W2
Rather a waste of time but well enough	W2
	-
I listened as I waited and heard steps	I3
Outside of one who paused and then went on	F2
And having heard I might as well have seen	E3
The fear in his wife's eyes He gazed away	V
As I could see in helpless thought of her	O
And said to me Well then it was like this	J3
Some tales will have a deal of going back	K3
In them before they are begun But this one	C
Begins in the beginning when he came	E
I was a boy at school sixteen years old	L3
And on my way in all appearances	M3
To mark an even tempered average	N3
Among the major mediocrities	M3
Who serve and earn with no especial noise	M3
Or vast reward I saw myself even then	E2
A light for no high shining and I feared	O3
No boy or man having in truth no cause	M3
I was enough a leader to be free	K
And not enough a hero to be jealous	M3
Having eyes and ears I knew that I was envied	P3
And as a proper sort of compensation	C
Had envy of my own for two or three	K
But never felt and surely never gave	Q3
The wound of any more malevolence	M3
Than decent youth defeated for a day	V
May take to bed with him and kill with sleep	R3
So and so far my days were going well	X2
And would have gone so but for the black tiger	O
That many of us fancy is in waiting	L
But waits for most of us in fancy only	K
For me there was no fancy in his coming	L
Though God knows I had never summoned him	T
Or thought of him To this day I'm adrift	S3
And in the dark out of all reckoning	L
To find a reason why he ever was	M3
Or what was ailing Fate when he was born	T3
On this alleged God ordered earth of ours	M3
Now and again there comes one of his kind	U3
By chance we say I leave all that to you	Q
Whether it was an evil chance alone	D
Or some invidious juggling of the stars	M3
Or some accrued arrears of ancestors	M3
Who throve on debts that I was here to pay	V
Or sins within me that I knew not of	V3
Or just a foretaste of what waits in hell	X2
For those of us who cannot love a worm	W3
Whatever it was or whence or why it was	M3
One day there came a stranger to the school	X3
And having had one mordacious glimpse of him	T
That filled my eyes and was to fill my life	A2
I have known Peace only as one more word	Y3
Among the many others we say over	O
That have an airy credit of no meaning	L
One of these days if I were seeing many	K
To live I might erect a cenotaph	A2
To Job's wife I assume that you remember	O
If you forget she's extant in your Bible	B2
	-
Now this was not the language of a man	F
Whom I had known as Avon and I winced	Z3
Hearing it though I knew that in my heart	A4
There was no visitation of surprise	M3
Unwelcome as it was and off the key	K
Calamitously it overlived a silence	M3
That was itself a story and affirmed	B4
A savage emphasis of honesty	K
That I would only gladly have attuned	C4
If possible to vinous innovation	C
But his indifferent wassailing was always	M3
Too far within the measure of excess	M3
For that and then there were those eyes of his	M3
Avon indeed had kept his word with me	K
And there was not much yet to make me happy	K
	-
So there we were he said we two together	O
Breathing one air And how shall I go on	F2
To say by what machinery the slow net	I2
Of my fantastic and increasing hate	D4
Was ever woven as it was around us	M3
I cannot answer and you need not ask	E4
What undulating reptile he was like	F4
For such a worm as I discerned in him	T
Was never yet on earth or in the ocean	C
Or anywhere else than in my sense of him	T
Had all I made of him been tangible	B2
The Lord must have invented long ago	U
Some private and unspeakable new monster	O
Equipped for such a thing's extermination	C
Whereon the monster seeing no other monster	O
Worth biting would have died with his work done	C
There's a humiliation in it now	T2
As there was then and worse than there was then	E2
For then there was the boy to shoulder it	M2
Without the sickening weight of added years	M3
Galling him to the grave Beware of hate	D4
That has no other boundary than the grave	A2
Made for it or for ourselves Beware I say	V
And I'm a sorry one I fear to say it	M2
Though for the moment we may let that go	U
And while I'm interrupting my own story	K
I'll ask of you the favor of a look	G4
Into the street I like it when it's empty	K
There's only one man walking Let him walk	U2
I wish to God that all men might walk always	M3
And so being busy love one another more	O
	-
Avon I said now in my chair again	E2
Although I may not be here to be happy	K
If you are careless I may have to laugh	A2
I have disliked a few men in my life	A2
But never to the scope of wishing them	H4
To this particular pedestrian hell	X2
Of your affection I should not like that	I4
Forgive me for this time it was your fault	J4
	-
He drummed with all his fingers on his chair	O
And after a made smile of acquiescence	M3
Took up again the theme of his aversion	C
Which now had flown along with him alone	D
For twenty years like Io's evil insect	K4
To sting him when it would The decencies	M3
Forbade that I should look at him for ever	O
Yet many a time I found myself ashamed	L4
Of a long staring at him and as often	C
Essayed the dictionary on the table	B2
Wondering if in its interior	O
There was an uncompanionable word	Y3
To say just what was creeping in my hair	O
At which my scalp would shrink at which again	E2
I would arouse myself with a vain scorn	T3
Remembering that all this was in New York	M4
As if that were somehow the banishing	L
For ever of all unseemly presences	M3
And listen to the story of my friend	C2
Who as I feared was not for me to save	A2
And as I knew knew also that I feared it	M2
	-
Humiliation he began again	E2
May be or not the best of all bad names	M3
I might employ and if you scent remorse	M3
There may be growing such a flower as that	I4
In the unsightly garden where I planted	N4
Not knowing the seed or what was coming of it	M2
I've done much wondering if I planted it	M2
But our poor wonder when it comes too late	D4
Fights with a lath and one that solid fact	O4
Breaks while it yawns and looks another way	V
For a less negligible adversary	K
Away with wonder then though I'm at odds	M3
With conscience even tonight for good assurance	M3
That it was I or chance and I together	O
Did all that sowing If I seem to you	Q
To be a little bitten by the question	C
Without a miracle it might be true	Q
The miracle is to me that I'm not eaten	C
Long since to death of it and that you sit	M2
With nothing more agreeable than a ghost	L2
If you had thought a while of that you might	Y2
Unhappily not have come and your not coming	L
Would have been desolation not for you	Q
God save the mark for I would have you here	O
I shall not be alone with you to listen	C
And I should be far less alone tonight	Y2
With you away make what you will of that	I4
	-
I said that we were going back to school	X3
And we may say that we are there with him	T
This fellow had no friend and as for that	I4
No sign of an apparent need of one	C
Save always and alone myself He fixed	P4
His heart and eyes on me insufferably	X3
And in a sort of Nemesis like way	V
Invincibly Others who might have given	C
A welcome even to him or I'll suppose so	M3
Adorning an unfortified assumption	C
With gold that might come off with afterthought	B3
Got never if anything more out of him	T
Than a word flung like refuse in their faces	M3
And rarely that For God knows what good reason	C
He lavished his whole altered arrogance	M3
On me and with an overweening skill	X3
Which had sometimes almost a cringing in it	M2
Found a few flaws in my tight mail of hate	D4
And slowly pricked a poison into me	K
In which at first I failed at recognizing	L
An unfamiliar subtle sort of pity	K
But so it was and I believe he knew it	M2
Though even to dream it would have been absurd	Y3
Until I knew it and there was no need	P3
Of dreaming For the fellow's indolence	M3
And his malignant oily swarthiness	M3
Housing a reptile blood that I could see	M3
Beneath it like hereditary venom	Q4
Out of old human swamps hardly revealed	R4
Itself the proper spawning ground of pity	M3
But so it was Pity or something like it	M2
Was in the poison of his proximity	M3
For nothing else that I have any name for	O
Could have invaded and so mastered me	M3
With a slow tolerance that eventually	M3
Assumed a blind ascendency of custom	Q4
That saw not even itself When I came in	S4
Often I'd find him strewn along my couch	T4
Like an amorphous lizard with its clothes on	F2
Reading a book and waiting for its dinner	O
His clothes were always odiously in order	O
Yet I should not have thought of him as clean	E3
Not even if he had washed himself to death	A
Proving it There was nothing right about him	T
Then he would search never quite satisfied	U4
Though always in a measure confident	V4
My eyes to find a welcome waiting in them	H4
Unwilling as I see him now to know	M3
That it would never be there Looking back	K3
I am not sure that he would not have died	U4
For me if I were drowning or on fire	O
Or that I would not rather have let myself	A2
Die twice than owe the debt of my survival	X3
To him though he had lost not even his clothes	M3
No there was nothing right about that fellow	M3
And after twenty years to think of him	T
I should be quite as helpless now to serve him	T
As I was then I mean without my story	M3
Be patient and you'll see just what I mean	E3
Which is to say you won't But you can listen	C
And that's itself a large accomplishment	V4
Uncrowned and may be at a time like this	M3
A mighty charity It was in January	M3
This evil genius came into our school	X3
And it was June when he went out of it	M2
If I may say that he was wholly out	W4
Of any place that I was in thereafter	O
But he was not yet gone When we are told	L3
By Fate to bear what we may never bear	O
Fate waits a little while to see what happens	M3
And this time it was only for the season	C
Between the swift midwinter holidays	M3
And the long progress into weeks and months	M3
Of all the days that followed with him there	O
To make them longer I would have given an eye	X4
Before the summer came to know for certain	C
That I should never be condemned again	E2
To see him with the other and all the while	X3
There was a battle going on within me	M3
Of hate that fought remorse if you must have it	M2
Never to win never to win but once	M3
And having won to lose disastrously	M3
And as it was to prove interminably	M3
Or till an end of living may annul	X3
If so it be the nameless obligation	C
That I have not the Christian revenue	Q
In me to pay A man who has no gold	L3
Or an equivalent shall pay no gold	L3
Until by chance or labor or contrivance	M3
He makes it his to pay and he that has	M3
No kindlier commodity than hate	D4
Glossed with a pity that belies itself	A2
In its negation and lacks alchemy	M3
To fuse itself to love would you have me say	M3
I don't believe it No there is no such word	Y3
If I say tolerance there's no more to say	M3
And he who sickens even in saying that	I4
What coin of God has he to pay the toll	X3
To peace on earth Good will to men oh yes	M3
That's easy and it means no more than sap	Y4
Until we boil the water out of it	M2
Over the fire of sacrifice I'll do it	M2
And in a measurable way I've done it	M2
But not for him What are you smiling at	I4
Well so it went until a day in June	Z4
We were together under an old elm
Which now I hope is gone though it's a crime	H2
In me that I should have to wish the death	A
Of such a tree as that There were no trees	M3
Like those that grew at school until he came	E
We stood together under it that day	M3
When he by some ungovernable chance	M3
All foreign to the former crafty care	O
That he had used never to cross my favor	O
Told of a lie that stained a friend of mine
With a false blot that a few days washed off	A2
A trifle now but a boy's honor then	E2
Which then was everything There were some words	M3
Between us but I don't remember them	H4
All I remember is a bursting flood	N4
Of half a year's accumulated hate	D4
And his incredulous eyes before I struck him	T
He had gone once too far and when he knew it	M2
He knew it was all over and I struck him	T
Pound for pound he was the better brute
But bulking in the way then of my fist
And all there was alive in me to drive it	M2
Three of him misbegotten into one	C
Would have gone down like him and being larger	O
Might have bled more if that were necessary	M3
He came up soon and if I live for ever	O
The vengeance in his eyes and a weird gleam
Of desolation it I make you see it	M2
Will be before me as it is tonight	Y2
I shall not ever know how long it was	M3
I waited his attack that never came	E
It might have been an instant or an hour	O
That I stood ready there watching his eyes	M3
And the tears running out of them They made
Me sick those tears for I knew miserably	M3
They were not there for any pain he felt
I do not think he felt the pain at all	X3
He felt the blow Oh the whole thing was bad
So bad that even the bleaching suns and rains	M3
Of years that wash away to faded lines	M3
Or blot out wholly the sharp wrongs and ills	M3
Of youth have had no cleansing agent in them	H4
To dim the picture I still see him going	L
Away from where I stood and I shall see him	T
Longer sometime than I shall see the face	M3
Of whosoever watches by the bed	Q2
On which I die given I die that way	M3
I doubt if he could reason his advantage	N3
In living any longer after that	I4
Among the rest of us The lad he slandered	Y3
Or gave a negative immunity	M3
No better than a stone he might have thrown	D
Behind him at his head was of the few	Q
I might have envied and for that being known	D
My fury became sudden history	M3
And I a sudden hero But the crown
I wore was hot and I would happily	M3
Have hurled it if I could so far away	M3
That over my last hissing glimpse of it	M2
There might have closed an ocean He went home	Z
The next day and the same unhappy chance	M3
That first had fettered me and my aversion	C
To his unprofitable need of me	M3
Brought us abruptly face to face again	E2
Beside the carriage that had come for him	T
We met and for a moment we were still	X3
Together But I was reading in his eyes	M3
More than I read at college or at law	X3
In years that followed There was blankly nothing	L
For me to say if not that I was sorry	M3
And that was more than hate would let me say	M3
Whatever the truth might be At last he spoke
And I could see the vengeance in his eyes	M3
And a cold sorrow which if I had seen	E3
Much more of it might yet have mastered me	M3
But I would see no more of it Well then '	-
He said have you thought yet of anything	L
Worth saying If so there's time If you are silent	V4
I shall know where you are until you die '	-
I can still hear him saying those words to me	M3
Again without a loss or an addition	C
I know for I have heard them ever since	M3
And there was in me not an answer for them	H4
Save a new roiling silence Once again	E2
I met his look and on his face I saw	X3
There was a twisting in the swarthiness	X3
That I had often sworn to be the cast
Of his ophidian mind He had no soul	X3
There was to be no more of him not then	E2
The carriage rolled away with him inside	U4
Leaving the two of us alive together	O
In the same hemisphere to hate each other	O
I don't know now whether he's here alive	A2
Or whether he's here dead But that of course	X3
As you would say is only a tired man's fancy	X3
You know that I have driven the wheels too fast
Of late and all for gold I do not need	P3
When are we mortals to be sensible	X3
Paying no more for life than life is worth
Better for us no doubt we do not know	M3
How much we pay or what it is we buy	X4
He waited gazing at me as if asking	L
The worth of what the universe had for sale	X3
For one confessed remorse Avon I knew	Q
Had driven the wheels too fast and not for gold	L3
	-
If you had given him then your hand I said	Q2
And spoken though it strangled you the truth
I should not have the melancholy honor	O
Of sitting here alone with you this evening	L
If only you had shaken hands with him	T
And said the truth he would have gone his way	M3
And you your way He might have wished you dead	Q2
But he would not have made you miserable	X3
At least I added indefensibly	X3
That's what I hope is true	Q
	-
He pitied me	X3
But had the magnanimity not to say so	M3
If only we had shaken hands he said	Q2
And I had said the truth we might have been	S4
In half a moment rolling on the gravel	X3
If I had said the truth I should have said	Q2
That never at any moment on the clock	G3
Above us in the tower since his arrival	X3
Had I been in a more proficient mood
To throttle him If you had seen his eyes	X3
As I did and if you had seen his face	X3
At work as I did you might understand	J2
I was ashamed of it as I am now	T2
But that's the prelude to another theme
For now I'm saying only what had happened	I
If I had taken his hand and said the truth
The wise have cautioned us that where there's hate	D4
There's also fear The wise are right sometimes	X3
There may be now but there was no fear then	E2
There was just hatred hauled up out of hell	X3
For me to writhe in and I writhed in it	M2
	-
I saw that he was writhing in it still	X3
But having a magnanimity myself	A2
I waited There was nothing else to do	Q
But wait and to remember that his tale	X3
Though well along as I divined it was	X3
Yet hovered among shadows and regrets	X3
Of twenty years ago When he began	F
Again to speak I felt them coming nearer	O
	-
Whenever your poet or your philosopher	O
Has nothing richer for us he resumed
He burrows among remnants like a mouse	X3
In a waste basket and with much dry noise	X3
Comes up again having found Time at the bottom	Q4
And filled himself with its futility	X3
Time is at once ' he says to startle us	X3
A poison for us if we make it so	M3
And if we make it so an antidote
For the same poison that afflicted us '	-
I'm witness to the poison but the cure	O
Of my complaint is not for me in Time	H2
There may be doctors in eternity	X3
To deal with it but they are not here now	T2
There's no specific for my three diseases	X3
That I could swallow even if I should find it	M2
And I shall never find it here on earth
	-
Mightn't it be as well my friend I said	Q2
For you to contemplate the uncompleted
With not such an infernal certainty	X3
	-
And mightn't it be as well for you my friend	C2
Said Avon to be quiet while I go on	F2
When I am done then you may talk all night	Y2
Like a physician who can do no good
But knows how soon another would have his fee	X3
Were he to tell the truth Your fee for this	X3
Is in my gratitude and my affection	C
And I'm not eager to be calling in	S4
Another to take yours away from you	Q
Whatever it's worth I like to think I know	M3
Well then again The carriage rolled away	M3
With him inside and so it might have gone
For ten years rolling on with him still in it	M2
For all it was I saw of him Sometimes	X3
I heard of him but only as one hears	X3
Of leprosy in Boston or New York	M4
And wishes it were somewhere else He faded	N4
Out of my scene yet never quite out of it	M2
I shall know where you are until you die '	-
Were his last words and they are the same words	X3
That I received thereafter once a year	O
Infallibly on my birthday with no name	E
Only a card and the words printed on it	M2
No I was never rid of him not quite	Y2
Although on shipboard on my way from here	O
To Hamburg I believe that I forgot him	T
But once ashore I should have been half ready	X3
To meet him there risen up out of the ground
With hoofs and horns and tail and everything	L
Believe me there was nothing right about him	T
Though it was not in Hamburg that I found him	T
Later in Rome it was we found each other	O
For the first time since we had been at school	X3
There was the same slow vengeance in his eyes	X3
When he saw mine and there was a vicious twist
On his amphibious face that might have been	S4
On anything else a smile rather like one	C
We look for on the stage than in the street	C3
I must have been a yard away from him	T
Yet as we passed I felt the touch of him	T
Like that of something soft in a dark room
There's hardly need of saying that we said nothing	L
Or that we gave each other an occasion	C
For more than our eyes uttered He was gone
Before I knew it like a solid phantom	Q4
And his reality was for me some time	H2
In its achievement given that one's to be	X3
Convinced that such an incubus at large
Was ever quite real The season was upon us	X3
When there are fitter regions in the world
Though God knows he would have been safe enough	A2
Than Rome for strayed Americans to live in	S4
And when the whips of their itineraries	X3
Hurry them north again I took my time	H2
Since I was paying for it and leisurely	X3
Went where I would though never again to move	A2
Without him at my elbow or behind me	X3
My shadow of him wherever I found myself	A2
Might horribly as well have been the man	F
Although I should have been afraid of him	T
No more than of a large worm in a salad	N4
I should omit the salad certainly	X3
And wish the worm elsewhere And so he was	X3
In fact yet as I go on to grow older	O
I question if there's anywhere a fact	O4
That isn't the malevolent existence	X3
Of one man who is dead or is not dead	Q2
Or what the devil it is that he may be	X3
There must be I suppose a fact somewhere	O
But I don't know it I can only tell you	Q
That later when to all appearances	X3
I stood outside a music hall in London	C
I felt him and then saw that he was there	O
Yes he was there and had with him a woman	C
Who looked as if she didn't know I'm sorry	X3
To this day for that woman who no doubt	W4
Is doing well Yes there he was again	E2
There were his eyes and the same vengeance in them	H4
That I had seen in Rome and twice before	O
Not mentioning all the time or most of it	M2
Between the day I struck him and that evening	L
That was the worst show that I ever saw	X3
But you had better see it for yourself	A2
Before you say so too I went away	M3
Though not for any fear that I could feel	X3
Of him or of his worst manipulations	X3
But only to be out of the same air	O
That made him stay alive in the same world
With all the gentlemen that were in irons	X3
For uncommendable extravagances	X3
That I should reckon slight compared with his	X3
Offence of being Distance would have made him	T
A moving fly speck on the map of life	A2
But he would not be distant though his flesh
And bone might have been climbing Fujiyama
Or Chimborazo with me there in London	C
Or sitting here My doom it was to see him	T
Be where I might That was ten years ago	M3
And having waited season after season	C
His always imminent evil recrudescence	X3
And all for nothing I was waiting still	X3
When the Titanic touched a piece of ice	X3
And we were for a moment where we are	O
With nature laughing at us When the noise	X3
Had spent itself to names his was among them	H4
And I will not insult you or myself	A2
With a vain perjury I was far from cold	L3
It seemed as for the first time in my life	A2
I knew the blessedness of being warm
And I remember that I had a drink
Having assuredly no need of it	M2
Pity a fool for his credulity	X3
If so you must But when I found his name	E
Among the dead I trusted once the news	X3
And after that there were no messages	X3
In ambush waiting for me on my birthday	M3
There was no vestige yet of any fear	O
You understand if that's why you are smiling	L
	-
I said that I had not so much as whispered	Y3
The name aloud of any fear soever	O
And that I smiled at his unwonted plunge
Into the perilous pool of Dionysus	X3
Well if you are so easily diverted
As that he said drumming his chair again	E2
You will be pleased I think with what is coming	L
And though there be divisions and departures	X3
Imminent from now on for your diversion	C
I'll do the best I can More to the point
I know a man who if his friends were like him	T
Would live in the woods all summer and all winter	O
Leaving the town and its iniquities	X3
To die of their own dust But having his wits	X3
Henceforth he may conceivably avoid
The adventure unattended Last October	O
He took me with him into the Maine woods	X3
Where by the shore of a primeval lake	S2
With woods all round it and a voyage away	M3
From anything wearing clothes he had reared somehow	T2
A lodge or camp with a stone chimney in it	M2
And a wide fireplace to make men forget	I2
Their sins who sat before it in the evening	L
Hearing the wind outside among the trees	X3
And the black water washing on the shore	O
I never knew the meaning of October	O
Until I went with Asher to that place	X3
Which I shall not investigate again	E2
Till I be taken there by other forces	X3
Than are innate in my economy	X3
You may not like it ' Asher said but Asher	O
Knows what is good So put your faith in Asher	O
And come along with him He's an odd bird	Y3
Yet I could wish for the world's decency	X3
There might be more of him And so it was	X3
I found myself at first incredulous	X3
Down there with Asher in the wilderness	X3
Alive at last with a new liberty	X3
And with no sore to fester He perceived
In me an altered favor of God's works	X3
And promptly took upon himself the credit	H3
Which in a fashion was as accurate	H3
As one's interpretation of another	O
Is like to be So for a frosty fortnight	Y2
We had the sunlight with us on the lake	S2
And the moon with us when the sun was down
God gave his adjutants a holiday '	-
Asher assured me when He made this place'	X3
And I agreed with him that it was heaven	C
Till it was hell for me for then and after	O
	-
There was a village miles away from us	X3
Where now and then we paddled for the mail	X3
And incidental small commodities	X3
That perfect exile might require and stayed
The night after the voyage with an antique
Survival of a broader world than ours	X3
Whom Asher called The Admiral This time	H2
A little out of sorts and out of tune	Z4
With paddling I let Asher go alone	D
Sure that his heart was happy Then it was	X3
That hell came I sat gazing over there	O
Across the water watching the sun's last fire	O
Above those gloomy and indifferent trees	X3
That might have been a wall around the world
When suddenly like faces over the lake	S2
Out of the silence of that other shore	O
I was aware of hidden presences	X3
That soon no matter how many of them there were	O
Would all be one I could not look behind me	X3
Where I could hear that one of them was breathing	L
For if I did those others over there	O
Might all see that at last I was afraid
And I might hear them without seeing them	H4
Seeing that other one You were not there	O
And it is well for you that you don't know	M3
What they are like when they should not be there	O
And there were chilly doubts of whether or not	B3
I should be seeing the rest that I should see	X3
With eyes or otherwise I could not be sure	O
And as for going over to find out	W4
All I may tell you now is that my fear	O
Was not the fear of dying though I knew soon	Z4
That all the gold in all the sunken ships	X3
That have gone down since Tyre would not have paid
For me the ferriage of myself alone	D
To that infernal shore I was in hell	X3
Remember and if you have never been there	O
You may as well not say how easy it is	X3
To find the best way out There may not be one	C
Well I was there and I was there alone	D
Alone for the first time since I was born	T3
And I was not alone That's what it is	X3
To be in hell I hope you will not go there	O
All through that slow long desolating twilight	Y2
Of incoherent certainties I waited	N4
Never alone never to be alone	D
And while the night grew down upon me there	O
I thought of old Prometheus in the story	X3
That I had read at school and saw mankind	U3
All huddled into clusters in the dark
Calling to God for light There was a light	Y2
Coming for them but there was none for me	X3
Until a shapeless remnant of a moon	Z4
Rose after midnight over the black trees	X3
Behind me I should hardly have confessed
The heritage then of my identity	X3
To my own shadow for I was powerless there	O
As I am here Say what you like to say	X3
To silence but say none of it to me	X3
Tonight To say it now would do no good
And you are here to listen Beware of hate	D4
And listen Beware of hate remorse and fear	O
And listen You are staring at the damned
But yet you are no more the one than he	X3
To say that it was he alone who planted	N4
The flower of death now growing in his garden	C
Was it enough I wonder that I struck him	T
I shall say nothing I shall have to wait	D4
Until I see what's coming if it comes	X3
When I'm a delver in another garden	C
If such an one there be If there be none	C
All's well and over Rather a vain expense	X3
One might affirm yet there is nothing lost
Science be praised that there is nothing lost
	-
I'm glad the venom that was on his tongue
May not go down on paper and I'm glad
No friend of mine alive far as I know	M3
Has a tale waiting for me with an end	C2
Like Avon's There was here an interruption	C
Though not a long one only while we heard	Y3
As we had heard before the ghost of steps	X3
Faintly outside We knew that she was there	O
Again and though it was a kindly folly	X3
I wished that Avon's wife would go to sleep	R3
	-
I was afraid this time but not of man	F
Or man as you may figure him he said	Q2
It was not anything my eyes had seen	E3
That I could feel around me in the night	Y2
There by that lake If I had been alone	D
There would have been the joy of being free	X3
Which in imagination I had won	C
With unimaginable expiation	C
But I was not alone If you had seen me	X3
Waiting there for the dark and looking off	A2
Over the gloom of that relentless water	O
Which had the stillness of the end of things	X3
That evening on it I might well have made
For you the picture of the last man left
Where God in his extinction of the rest
Had overlooked him and forgotten him	T
Yet I was not alone Interminably	X3
The minutes crawled along and over me	X3
Slow cold intangible and invisible	X3
As if they had come up out of that water	O
How long I sat there I shall never know	C
For time was hidden out there in the black lake	S2
Which now I could see only as a glimpse	X3
Of black light by the shore There were no stars	X3
To mention and the moon was hours away	X3
Behind me There was nothing but myself	A2
And what was coming On my breast I felt
The touch of death and I should have died then	C
I ruined good Asher's autumn as it was	X3
For he will never again go there alone	C
If ever he goes at all Nature did ill	X3
To darken such a faith in her as his	X3
Though he will have it that I had the worst
Of her defection and will hear no more	O
Apologies If it had to be for someone	C
I think it well for me it was for Asher	O
I dwell on him meaning that you may know him	T
Before your last horn blows He has a name	E
That's like a tree and therefore like himself	A2
By which I mean you find him where you leave him	T
I saw him and The Admiral together	O
While I was in the dark but they were far	O
Far as around the world from where I was	X3
And they knew nothing of what I saw not	B3
While I knew only I was not alone	C
I made a fire to make the place alive	A2
And locked the door But even the fire was dead	Q2
And all the life there was was in the shadow	C
It made of me My shadow was all of me	X3
The rest had had its day and there was night	Y2
Remaining only night that's made for shadows	X3
Shadows and sleep and dreams or dreams without it	M2
The fire went slowly down and now the moon	C
Or that late wreck of it was coming up
And though it was a martyr's work to move	A2
I must obey my shadow and I did
There were two beds built low against the wall	X3
And down on one of them with all my clothes on	C
Like a man getting into his own grave	A2
I lay and waited As the firelight sank
The moonlight which had partly been consumed
By the black trees framed on the other wall	X3
A glimmering window not far from the ground
The coals were going and only a few sparks	X3
Were there to tell of them and as they died	U4
The window lightened and I saw the trees	X3
They moved a little but I could not move	A2
More than to turn my face the other way	X3
And then if you must have it so I slept
We'll call it so if sleep is your best name	E
For a sort of conscious frozen catalepsy	X3
Wherein a man sees all there is around him	T
As if it were not real and he were not	B3
Alive You may call it anything you please	X3
That made me powerless to move hand or foot
Or to make any other living motion	C
Than after a long horror without hope
To turn my face again the other way	X3
Some force that was not mine opened my eyes	X3
And as I knew it must be it was there	O
	-
Avon covered his eyes whether to shut	H3
The memory and the sight of it away	X3
Or to be sure that mine were for the moment	V4
Not searching his with pity is now no matter	O
My glance at him was brief turning itself	A2
To the familiar pattern of his rug
Wherein I may have sought a consolation	C
As one may gaze in sorrow on a shell	X3
Or a small apple So it had come I thought	D3
And heard no longer with a wonderment	V4
The faint recurring footsteps of his wife	A2
Who knowing less than I knew yet knew more	O
Now I could read I fancied through the fear	O
That latterly was living in her eyes	X3
To the sure source of its authority	X3
But he went on and I was there to listen	C
	-
And though I saw it only as a blot	B3
Between me and my life it was enough	A2
To make me know that he was watching there	O
Waiting for me to move or not to move	A2
Before he moved Sick as I was with hate	D4
Reborn and chained with fear that was more than fear	O
I would have gambled all there was to gain	C
Or lose in rising there from where I lay	X3
And going out after it Before the dawn '	-
I reasoned there will be a difference here	O
Therefore it may as well be done outside '	-
And then I found I was immovable	X3
As I had been before and a dead sweat	I2
Rolled out of me as I remembered him	T
When I had seen him leaving me at school	X3
I shall know where you are until you die '	-
Were the last words that I had heard him say	X3
And there he was Now I could see his face	X3
And all the sad malignant desperation	C
That was drawn on it after I had struck him	T
And on my memory since that afternoon	C
But all there was left now for me to do	Q
Was to lie there and see him while he squeezed
His unclean outlines into the dim room
And half erect inside like a still beast	G
With a face partly man's came slowly on	C
Along the floor to the bed where I lay	X3
And waited There had been so much of waiting	L
Through all those evil years before my respite	M2
Which now I knew and recognized at last
As only his more venomous preparation	C
For the vile end of a deceiving peace	X3
That I began to fancy there was on me	X3
The stupor that explorers have alleged
As evidence of nature's final mercy	X3
When tigers have them down upon the earth
And wild hot breath is heavy on their faces	X3
I could not feel his breath but I could hear it	M2
Though fear had made an anvil of my heart	A4
Where demons for the joy of doing it	M2
Were sledging death down on it And I saw	X3
His eyes now as they were for the first time	H2
Aflame as they had never been before	O
With all their gathered vengeance gleaming in them	H4
And always that unconscionable sorrow	C
That would not die behind it Then I caught	B3
The shadowy glimpse of an uplifted arm
And a moon flash of metal That was all	X3
	-
When I believed I was alive again	C
I was with Asher and The Admiral	X3
Whom Asher had brought with him for a day	X3
With nature They had found me when they came	E
And there was not much left of me to find	U3
I had not moved or known that I was there	O
Since I had seen his eyes and felt his breath	A
And it was not for some uncertain hours	X3
After they came that either would say how long
That might have been It should have been much longer	O
All you may add will be your own invention	C
For I have told you all there is to tell	X3
Tomorrow I shall have another birthday	X3
And with it there may come another message
Although I cannot see the need of it	M2
Or much more need of drowning if that's all	X3
Men drown for when they drown You know as much	A3
As I know about that though I've a right	Y2
If not a reason to be on my guard
And only God knows what good that will do	Q
Now you may get some air Good night and thank you	Q
He smiled but I would rather he had not	B3
	-
I wished that Avon's wife would go to sleep	R3
But whether she found sleep that night or not	B3
I do not know I was awake for hours	X3
Toiling in vain to let myself believe	A2
That Avon's apparition was a dream
And that he might have added for romance	X3
The part that I had taken home with me	X3
For reasons not in Avon's dictionary	X3
But each recurrent memory of his eyes	X3
And of the man himself that I had known	C
So long and well made soon of all my toil	X3
An evanescent and a vain evasion	C
And it was half as in expectancy	X3
That I obeyed the summons of his wife	A2
A little before dawn and was again	C
With Avon in the room where I had left him	T
But not with the same Avon I had left
The doctor an august authority	X3
With eminence abroad as well as here	O
Looked hard at me as if I were the doctor	O
And he the friend I have had eyes on Avon	C
For more than half a year he said to me	X3
And I have wondered often what it was	X3
That I could see that I was not to see	X3
Though he was in the chair where you are looking	L
I told his wife I had to tell her something	L
It was a nightmare and an aneurism	Q4
And so or partly so I'll say it was	X3
The last without the first will be enough	A2
For the newspapers and the undertaker	O
Yet if we doctors were not all immune	C
From death disease and curiosity	X3
My diagnosis would be sorry for me	X3
He died you know because he was afraid
And he had been afraid for a long time	H2
And we who knew him well would all agree	X3
To fancy there was rather more than fear	O
The door was locked inside they broke it in	C
To find him but she heard him when it came	E
There are no signs of any visitors	X3
Or need of them If I were not a child	R2
Of science I should say it was the devil	X3
I don't believe it was another woman	C
And surely it was not another man	C

Edwin Arlington Robinson

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