Page:Collected poems Robinson, Edwin Arlington.djvu/28

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CASSANDRA

My burden? You would share it?Forbid the sacrifice!Forget so quaint a notion,And let no more be told;For moon and stars and oceanAnd you and I are cold."


CASSANDRA

I heard one who said: "Verily,What word have I for children here?Your Dollar is your only Word,The wrath of it your only fear.
"You build it altars tall enoughTo make you see, but you are blind;You cannot leave it long enoughTo look before you or behind.
"When Reason beckons you to pause,You laugh and say that you know best;But what it is you know, you keepAs dark as ingots in a chest.
"You laugh and answer, 'We are young;O leave us now, and let us grow.'—Not asking how much more of thisWill Time endure or Fate bestow.
"Because a few complacent yearsHave made your peril of your pride,Think you that you are to go onForever pampered and untried?

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