Read "Afterthoughts" by Edwin Arlington Robinson online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
WE parted where the old gas-lamp still burned
Under the wayside maple and walked on, / Into the dark, as we had always done; / And I, no doubt, if he had not returned, / Might yet be unaware that he had earned
More than earth gives to many who have won
More than it has to give when they are gone -
As duly and indelibly I learned.
The sum of all that he came back to say
Was little then, and would be less today:
With him there were no Delphic heights to climb, / Yet his were somehow nearer the sublime.
He spoke, and went again by the old way -
Not knowing it would be for the last time.