Read "The Whip" by Edwin Arlington Robinson online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
THE DOUBT you fought so long
The cynic net you cast, / The tyranny, the wrong, / The ruin, they are past; / And here you are at last,
Your blood no longer vexed.
The coffin has you fast, / The clod will have you next.
But fear you not the clod, / Nor ever doubt the grave:
The roses and the sod
Will not forswear the wave.
The gift the river gave
Is now but theirs to cover:
The mistress and the slave
Are gone now, and the lover.
You left the two to find
Their own way to the brink
Then - shall I call you blind? -
You chose to plunge and sink.
God knows the gall we drink
Is not the mead we cry for, / Nor was it, I should think -
For you - a thing to die for.
Could we have done the same,
Had we been in your place? -