Vain Gratuities

    NEVER was there a man much uglier
    In eyes of other women, or more grim:
    "The Lord has filled her chalice to the brim,
    So let us pray she's a philosopher,"
    They said; and there was more they said of her--
    Deeming it, after twenty years with him,
    No wonder that she kept her figure slim
    And always made you think of lavender.

    But she, demure as ever, and as fair,
    Almost, as they remembered her before
    She found him, would have laughed had she been there,
    And all they said would have been heard no more
    Than foam that washes on an island shore
    Where there are none to listen or to care.

        Edwin Arlington Robinson