When he protested, not too solemnly,
That for a world’s achieving maintenance
The crust of overdone divinity
Lacked aliment, they called it recreance;
And when he chose through his own glass to scan
Sick Europe, and reduced, unyieldingly,
The monk within the cassock to the man
Within the monk, they called it heresy.
And when he made so perilously bold
As to be scattered forth in black and white,
Good fathers looked askance at him and rolled
Their inward eyes in anguish and affright;
There were some of them did shake at what was told,
And they shook best who knew that he was right.
(Edwin Arlington Robinson)
More Poetry from Edwin Arlington Robinson:
Edwin Arlington Robinson Poems based on Topics: Man, World, Sadness, Gossip- Mr. Flood's Party (Edwin Arlington Robinson Poems)
- Sonnet 32: The Children of the Night (Edwin Arlington Robinson Poems)
- The Mill (Edwin Arlington Robinson Poems)
- Ballad of Dead Friends (Edwin Arlington Robinson Poems)
- Cassandra (Edwin Arlington Robinson Poems)
- Afterthoughts (Edwin Arlington Robinson Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Man Poems, World Poems, Sadness Poems, Gossip PoemsBased on Keywords: maintenance, overdone, protested, cassock, achieving, perilously, aliment, recreance, unyieldingly