| Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869–1935). Collected Poems. 1921. |
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| VII. The Three Taverns |
| 9. Tact |
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| OBSERVANT of the way she told | |
| So much of what was true, | |
| No vanity could long withhold | |
| Regard that was her due: | |
| She spared him the familiar guile, | 5 |
| So easily achieved, | |
| That only made a man to smile | |
| And left him undeceived. | |
| |
| Aware that all imagining | |
| Of more than what she meant | 10 |
| Would urge an end of everything, | |
| He stayed; and when he went, | |
| They parted with a merry word | |
| That was to him as light | |
| As any that was ever heard | 15 |
| Upon a starry night. | |
| |
| She smiled a little, knowing well | |
| That he would not remark | |
| That ruins of a day that fell | |
| Around her in the dark: | 20 |
| He saw no ruins anywhere, | |
| Nor fancied there were scars | |
| On anyone who lingered there, | |
| Alone below the stars. | |
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