Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

OCTAVES: 18 by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON

Poet Analysis

First Line: SOMETHING AS ONE WITH EYES THAT LOOK BELOW
Last Line: NOR WAVERS; BUT THE WORLD SHAKES AND WE SHRIEK.
Subject(s): WAR;
Like a white wall whereon forever breaks
Unsatisfied the tumult of green seas,
Man's unconjectured godliness rebukes
With its imperial silence the lost waves
Of insufficient grief. This mortal surge
That beats against us now is nothing else
Than plangent ignorance. Truth neither shakes
Nor wavers; but the world shakes and we shriek.




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