The man who cloaked his bitterness within
This winding-sheet of puns and pleasantries,
God never gave to look with common eyes
Upon a world of anguish and of sin:
His brother was the branded man of Lynn;
And there are woven with his jollities
The nameless and eternal tragedies
That render hope and hopelessness akin.
We laugh, and crown him; but anon we feel
A still chord sorrow-swept, — a weird unrest;
And thin dim shadows home to midnight steal,
As if the very ghost of mirth were dead —
As if the joys of time to dreams had fled,
Or sailed away with Ines to the West.
(Edwin Arlington Robinson)
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Based on Topics: God Poems, World Poems, Sadness Poems, Time Poems, Joy & Excitement Poems, Sin Poems, Brothers Poems, Laughter Poems, Puns PoemsBased on Keywords: branded, hopelessness, akin, cloaked, winding-sheet, tragedies, lynn, pleasantries, ines, jollities, sorrow-swept