Read "Veteran Sirens" by Edwin Arlington Robinson online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
THE GHOST of Ninon would be sorry now
To laugh at them, were she to see them here, / So brave and so alert for learning how
To fence with reason for another year.
Age offers a far comelier diadem
Than theirs; but anguish has no eye for grace, / When time's malicious mercy cautions them
To think a while of number and of space.
The burning hope, the worn expectancy, / The martyred humor, and the maimed allure,
Cry out for time to end his levity, / And age to soften its investiture; / But they, though others fade and are still fair, / Defy their fairness and are unsubdued; / Although they suffer, they may not forswear
The patient ardor of the unpursued.
Poor flesh, to fight the calendar so long; / Poor vanity, so quaint and yet so brave; / Poor folly, so deceived and yet so strong, / So far from Ninon and so near the grave.