Read "The Burning Book" by Edwin Arlington Robinson online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
OR THE CONTENTED METAPHYSICIAN
TO the lore of no manner of men
Would his vision have yielded
When he found what will never again
From his vision be shielded, -
Though he paid with as much of his life
As a nun could have given, / And to-night would have been as a knife, / Devil-drawn, devil-driven.
For to-night, with his flame-weary eyes
On the work he is doing,
He considers the tinder that flies
And the quick flame pursuing.
In the leaves that are crinkled and curled
Are his ashes of glory, / And what once were an end of the world
Is an end of a story.
But he smiles, for no more shall his days
Be a toil and a calling
For a way to make others to gaze
On God's face without falling.
He has come to the end of his words, / And alone he rejoices
In the choiring that silence affords