| Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869–1935). Collected Poems. 1921. |
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| V. The Town Down the River |
| 20. Shadrach O’Leary |
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| O’LEARY was a poet—for a while: | |
| He sang of many ladies frail and fair, | |
| The rolling glory of their golden hair, | |
| And emperors extinguished with a smile. | |
| They foiled his years with many an ancient wile, | 5 |
| And if they limped, O’Leary didn’t care: | |
| He turned them loose and had them everywhere, | |
| Undoing saints and senates with their guile. | |
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| But this was not the end. A year ago | |
| I met him—and to meet was to admire: | 10 |
| Forgotten were the ladies and the lyre, | |
| And the small, ink-fed Eros of his dream. | |
| By questioning I found a man to know— | |
| A failure spared, a Shadrach of the Gleam. | |
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