Eros Tyrannos

She fears him, and will always ask 
       What fated her to choose him 
She meets in his engaging mask 
       All reason to refuse him
But what she meets and what she fears 
Are less than are the downward years 
Drawn swiftly to the foamless weirs 
       Of age, were she to lose him

Between a blurred sagacity 
       That once had power to sound him 
And love, that will not let him be 
       The Judas that she found him 
Her pride assuages her almost 
As if it were alone the cost 
He sees that he will not be lost 
       And waits, and looks around him

The falling leaf inaugurates 
       The reign of her confusion 
The pounding wave reverberates 
       The dirge of her illusion 
And home, where passion lived and died 
Becomes a place where she can hide 
While all the town and harborside 
       Vibrate with her seclusion

We tell you, tapping on our brows 
       The story as it should be 
As if the story of a house 
       Were told, or ever could be 
We'll have no kindly veil between 
Her visions and those we have seen 
As if we knew what hers have been, 
       Or what they are, or would be

Meanwhile, we do no harm, for they 
       That with a god have striven 
Not hearing much of what we say 
       Take what the god has given 
Though like waves breaking it may be 
Or like a changed familiar tree 
Or like a stairway to the sea 
       Where down the blind are driven


  -- E. A. Robinson