Read "Aaron Stark" by Edwin Arlington Robinson online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
WITHAL a meagre man was Aaron Stark, / Cursed and unkempt, shrewd, shrivelled, and morose.
A miser was he, with a miser's nose, / And eyes like little dollars in the dark.
His thin, pinched mouth was nothing but a mark;
And when he spoke there came like sullen blows
Through scattered fangs a few snarled words and close, / As if a cur were chary of its bark.
Glad for the murmur of his hard renown, / Year after year he shambled through the town,
A loveless exile moving with a staff; / And oftentimes there crept into his ears
A sound of alien pity, touched with tears, -
And then (and only then) did Aaron laugh.