Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE TREE IN PAMELA'S GARDEN by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON

Poet Analysis

First Line: PAMELA WAS TOO GENTLE TO DECEIVE
Last Line: COULD THEY HAVE SEEN THAT SHE HAD OVERHEARD.

PAMELA was too gentle to deceive
Her roses. "Let the men stay where they are,"
She said, "and if Apollo's avatar
Be one of them, I shall not have to grieve."
And so she made all Tilbury Town believe
She sighed a little more for the North Star
Than over men, and only in so far
As she was in a garden was like Eve.

Her neighbors--doing all that neighbors can
To make romance of reticence meanwhile--
Seeing that she had never loved a man,
Wished Pamela had a cat, or a small bird,
And only would have wondered at her smile
Could they have seen that she had overheard.



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