I--THE EXPLANATION <br /> <br />"You thought we knew," she said, "but we were wrong. <br />This we can say, the rest we do not say; <br />Nor do I let you throw yourself away <br />Because you love me. Let us both be strong, <br />And we shall find in sorrow, before long, <br />Only the price Love ruled that we should pay: <br />The dark is the end of every day, <br />And silence is the end of every song. <br /> <br />"You ask me for one more proof that I speak right, <br />But I can answer only what I know; <br />You look for just one lie to make black white, <br />But I can tell you only what is true-- <br />God never made me for the wife of you. <br />This we can say,--believe me! . . . Tell me so!" <br /> <br />II--THE ANNIVERSARY <br /> <br />"Give me the truth, whatever it may be. <br />You thought we knew, but now tell me what you miss: <br />You are the one to tell me what it is-- <br />You are a man, and you have married me. <br />What is it worth to-night that you can see <br />More marriage in the dream of one dead kiss <br />Than in a thousand years of life like this? <br />Passion has turned the lock. Pride keeps the key. <br /> <br />"Whatever I have said or left unsaid, <br />Whatever I have done or left undone,-- <br />Tell me. Tell me the truth . . . Are you afraid? <br />Do you think that Love was ever fed with lies <br />But hunger lived thereafter in his eyes? <br />Do you ask me to take moonlight for the sun?"<br /><br />Edwin Arlington Robinson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-woman-and-the-wife/
