Page:Collected poems Robinson, Edwin Arlington.djvu/202

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AUNT IMOGEN

And she was in it only for four weeks
In fifty-two. But those great bites of time
Made all September a Queen's Festival;
And they would strive, informally, to make
The most of them. The mother understood,
And wisely stepped away. Aunt Imogen
Was there for only one- month in the year,
While she, the mother, she was always there;
And that was what made all the difference.
She knew it must be so, for Jane had once
Expounded it to her so learnedly
That she had looked away from the -child's eyes
And thought; and she had thought of many things.

There was a demonstration every time
Aunt Imogen appeared, and there was more
Than one this time. And she was at. a loss
Just how to name the meaning of it all:
It puzzled her to think that she could be
So much to any crazy thing alive
Even to her sister’s little sauvages
Who knew no better than to be themselves;
Eut in the midst of her glad, wonderment
She found herself besieged and overcome
By two tight arms and one tumultuous head,
And therewith half bewildered and half pained
Ey the joy she felt and by the sudden love
That proved itself in childhood's honest noise.
Jane, by the wings of sex, had reached her first;
And while she strangled her, approvingly,
Sylvester thumped his drum and Young George howled.
But finally, when all was rectified,
And she had stilled the clamor of Young George
By giving him a long ride on her shoulders,

They went together into the old room

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