Page:Collected poems Robinson, Edwin Arlington.djvu/247

This page needs to be proofread.

COLLECTED POEMS


The rest will be another's now, as long as I may live.
You will see me in the evening? And what evening has there been,
Since time began with women, but old age and wrinkled skin ?

X

LAIS TO APHRODITE

(Plato)

When I, poor Lais, with my crown
Of beauty could laugh Hellas down,
Young lovers crowded at my door,
Where now my lovers come no more.
So, Goddess, you will not refuse
A mirror that has now no use;
For what I was I cannot be,
And what I am I will not see.

XI

AN INSCRIPTION BY THE SEA

(Glaucus)

No dust have I to cover me,
My grave no man may show;
My tomb is this unending sea,
And I lie far below.
My fate, O stranger, was to drown;
And where it was the ship went down

Is what the sea-birds know.

230