Another Dark Lady by Edwin Arlington Robinson
The speaker addresses a vanished woman without wishing to seek her out, declaring that she may wander anywhere so long as she does not reappear. He considers her as beautiful yet harmful as any dark legend of the dead, even comparing her to Lilith, whom he calls the devil. Although he cannot hate her because he once loved her, he recalls a happier time when golden woods and a road among beeches made him compare the trees’ smooth feet to hers. He now recognizes the truth he had failed to see: her feet are cloven, marking her as something devilish rather than merely lovely.
By Edwin Arlington Robinson · First published 1921 · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Sonnet, Love Poetry · 153 words
First lines
THINK not, because I wonder where you fled, / That I would lift a pin to see you there; / You may, for me, be prowling anywhere, / So long as you show not your little head:
No dark and evil story of the dead
Would leave you less pernicious or less fair -
Not even Lilith, with her famous hair; / And Lilith was the devil, I have read.
What this Textopian page supports
Another Dark Lady is listed on Textopian as a poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson, dated 1921 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Edwin Arlington Robinson
- Date: 1921 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Lyric Poetry, Sonnet, Love Poetry, Anti-Love Poetry, Dark Romanticism
- Length: 153 words
- Structure: 1 section, 9 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
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- Work identity for Another Dark Lady by Edwin Arlington Robinson
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Genres
- Lyric Poetry — The work is a compact, emotionally concentrated poem expressing a speaker's personal response to a former beloved through musical language, imagery, and reflection.
- Sonnet — It is a fourteen-line poem organized in an Italianate sonnet form, with an octave and a concluding sestet that develops and sharpens the speaker's accusation.
- Love Poetry — Its central subject is a past romantic attachment: the speaker admits he once loved the woman and contrasts remembered idealization with later disillusionment.
- Anti-Love Poetry — Rather than celebrating love, the poem bitterly dismantles romantic memory, portraying the beloved as morally dangerous and deceptively alluring.
Tags
poetry · American literature · modernist poetry · lyric poetry · dramatic monologue · love · desire · romantic disillusionment · female portrait · mystery · melancholy · irony