Read "Bewick Finzer" by Edwin Arlington Robinson online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
TIME was when his half million drew
The breath of six per cent; / But soon the worm of what-was-not
Fed hard on his content; / And something crumbled in his brain
When his half million went.
Time passed, and filled along with his
The place of many more; / Time came, and hardly one of us
Had credence to restore,
From what appeared one day, the man
Whom we had known before.
The broken voice, the withered neck, / The coat worn out with care, / The cleanliness of indigence,
The brilliance of despair, / The fond imponderable dreams
Of affluence, - all were there.
Poor Finzer, with his dreams and schemes, / Fares hard now in the race,
With heart and eye that have a task
When he looks in the face
Of one who might so easily
Have been in Finzer's place.
He comes unfailing for the loan
We give and then forget; / He comes, and probably for years
Will he be coming yet, -