| Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869–1935). Collected Poems. 1921. |
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| V. The Town Down the River |
| 22. Alma Mater |
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| HE knocked, and I beheld him at the door— | |
| A vision for the gods to verify. | |
| “What battered ancientry is this,” thought I, | |
| “And when, if ever, did we meet before?” | |
| But ask him as I might, I got no more | 5 |
| For answer than a moaning and a cry: | |
| Too late to parley, but in time to die, | |
| He staggered, and lay shapeless on the floor. | |
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| When had I known him? And what brought him here? | |
| Love, warning, malediction, hunger, fear? | 10 |
| Surely I never thwarted such as he?— | |
| Again, what soiled obscurity was this: | |
| Out of what scum, and up from what abyss, | |
| Had they arrived—these rags of memory? | |
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