Yes, you have it; I can see. <br />Beautiful?… Dear, look at me! <br />Look and let my shame confess <br />Triumph after weariness. <br />Beautiful? Ah, yes. <br /> <br />Lift it where the beams are bright; <br />Hold it where the western light, <br />Shining in above my bed, <br />Throws a glory on your head. <br />Now it is all said. <br /> <br />All there was for me to say <br />From the first until to-day. <br />Long denied and long deferred, <br />Now I say it in one word— <br />Now; and you have heard. <br /> <br />Life would have its way with us, <br />And I’ve called it glorious: <br />For I know the glory now <br />And I read it on your brow. <br />You have shown me how. <br /> <br />I can feel your cheeks all wet, <br />But your eyes will not forget: <br />In the frown you cannot hide <br />I can read where faith and pride <br />Are not satisfied. <br /> <br />But the word was, two should live: <br />Two should suffer—and forgive: <br />By the steep and weary way, <br />For the glory of the clay, <br />Two should have their day. <br /> <br />We have toiled and we have wept <br />For the gift the gods have kept: <br />Clashing and unreconciled <br />When we might as well have smiled, <br />We have played the child. <br /> <br />But the clashing is all past, <br />And the gift is yours at last. <br />Lift it—hold it high again!… <br />Did I doubt you now and then? <br />Well, we are not men. <br /> <br />Never mind; we know the way,— <br />And I do not need to stay. <br />Let us have it well confessed: <br />You to triumph, I to rest. <br />That will be the best.<br /><br />Edwin Arlington Robinson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/partnership/
