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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


BEN TROVATO by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON

Poet Analysis

First Line: THE DEACON THOUGHT. 'I KNOW THEM,' HE BEGAN
Last Line: "HE SMILED--AS HE HAD NEVER SMILED AT HER."

THE deacon thought. "I know them," he began,
"And they are all you ever heard of them--
Allurable to no sure theorem,
The scorn or the humility of man.
You say 'Can I believe it?'--and I can;
And I'm unwilling even to condemn
The benefaction of a stratagem
Like hers--and I'm a Presbyterian.

"Though blind, with but a wandering hour to live,
He felt the other woman in the fur
That now the wife had on. Could she forgive
All that? Apparently. Her rings were gone,
Of course; and when he found that she had none,
He smiled--as he had never smiled at her."



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