No matter why, nor whence, nor when she came, <br />There was her place. No matter what men said, <br />No matter what she was; living or dead, <br />Faithful or not, he loved her all the same. <br />The story was as old as human shame, <br />But ever since that lonely night she fled, <br />With books to blind him, he had only read <br />The story of the ashes and the flame. <br /> <br />There she was always coming pretty soon <br />To fool him back, with penitent scared eyes <br />That had in them the laughter of the moon <br />For baffled lovers, and to make him think -- <br />Before she gave him time enough to wink -- <br />Sin's kisses were the keys to Paradise.<br /><br />Edwin Arlington Robinson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-story-of-the-ashes-and-the-flame/
