| Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869–1935). Collected Poems. 1921. |
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| II. The Children of the Night |
| 17. Zola |
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| BECAUSE he puts the compromising chart | |
| Of hell before your eyes, you are afraid; | |
| Because he counts the price that you have paid | |
| For innocence, and counts it from the start, | |
| You loathe him. But he sees the human heart | 5 |
| Of God meanwhile, and in His hand was weighed | |
| Your squeamish and emasculate crusade | |
| Against the grim dominion of his art. | |
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| Never until we conquer the uncouth | |
| Connivings of our shamed indifference | 10 |
| (We call it Christian faith) are we to scan | |
| The racked and shrieking hideousness of Truth | |
| To find, in hate’s polluted self-defence | |
| Throbbing, the pulse, the divine heart of man. | |
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