Explore "Not to Keep" by Robert Frost on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
They sent him back to her. The letter came / Saying. And she could have him. And before / She could be sure there was no hidden ill / Under the formal writing, he was in her sight, / Living. They gave him back to her alive --
How else? They are not known to send the dead --
And not disfigured visibly. His face?
His hands? She had to look, to ask, / "What is it, dear? " And she had given all / And still she had all -- they had -- they the lucky!
Wasn't she glad now? Everything seemed won, / And all the rest for them permissible ease.
She had to ask, "What was it, dear?"
"Enough, / Yet not enough. A bullet through and through, / High in the breast. Nothing but what good care / And medicine and rest, and you a week, / Can cure me of to go again. " The same / Grim giving to do over for them both.
She dared no more than ask him with her eyes / How was it with him for a second trial.
And with his eyes he asked her not to ask.
They had given him back to her, but not to keep.