The Man against the Sky
A Book of Poems
by Edwin Arlington Robinson
To
the memory of
WILLIAM EDWARD BUTLER
Several of the poems included in this book are reprinted
from American periodicals, as follows: "The Gift of God",
"Old King Cole", "Another Dark Lady", and "The Unforgiven";
"Flammonde" and "The Poor Relation"; "The Clinging Vine";
"Eros Turannos" and "Bokardo"; "The Voice of Age"; "Cassandra";
"The Burning Book"; "Theophilus"; "Ben Jonson Entertains
a Man from Stratford".
Contents
Flammonde
The Gift of God
The Clinging Vine
Cassandra
John Gorham
Stafford's Cabin
Hillcrest
Old King Cole
Ben Jonson Entertains a Man from Stratford
Eros Turannos
Old Trails
The Unforgiven
Theophilus
Veteran Sirens
Siege Perilous
Another Dark Lady
The Voice of Age
The Dark House
The Poor Relation
The Burning Book
Fragment
Lisette and Eileen
Llewellyn and the Tree
Bewick Finzer
Bokardo
The Man against the Sky
---------------------- The Man against the Sky
-----------------Flammonde
The man Flammonde, from God knows where,
With firm address and foreign air,
With news of nations in his talk
And something royal in his walk,
With glint of iron in his eyes,
But never doubt, nor yet surprise,
Appeared, and stayed, and held his head
As one by kings accredited.
Erect, with his alert repose
About him, and about his clothes,
He pictured all tradition hears
Of what we owe to fifty years.
His cleansing heritage of taste
Paraded neither want nor waste;
And what he needed for his fee
To live, he borrowed graciously.
He never told us what he was,
Or what mischance, or other cause,
Had banished him from better days
To play the Prince of Castaways.
Meanwhile he played surpassing well
A part, for most, unplayable;
In fine, one pauses, half afraid
To say for certain that he played.
For that, one may as well ...
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