| Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869–1935). Collected Poems. 1921. |
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| II. The Children of the Night |
| 15. The Story of the Ashes and the Flame |
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| NO matter why, nor whence, nor when she came, | |
| There was her place. No matter what men said, | |
| No matter what she was; living or dead, | |
| Faithful or not, he loved her all the same. | |
| The story was as old as human shame, | 5 |
| But ever since that lonely night she fled, | |
| With books to blind him, he had only read | |
| The story of the ashes and the flame. | |
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| There she was always coming pretty soon | |
| To fool him back, with penitent scared eyes | 10 |
| That had in them the laughter of the moon | |
| For baffled lovers, and to make him think— | |
| Before she gave him time enough to wink— | |
| Her kisses were the keys to Paradise. | |
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