Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935)
Supremacy
1There is a drear and lonely tract of hell
2From all the common gloom removed afar:
3A flat, sad land it is, where shadows are,
4Whose lorn estate my verse may never tell.
5I walked among them and I knew them well:
6Men I had slandered on life's little star
7For churls and sluggards; and I knew the scar
8Upon their brows of woe ineffable.
9But as I went majestic on my way,
10Into the dark they vanished, one by one,
11Till, with a shaft of God's eternal day,
12The dream of all my glory was undone,--
13And, with a fool's importunate dismay,
14I heard the dead men singing in the sun.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: Collected Poems, with an introduction by John Drinkwater (London: Cecil Palmer, 1922): 97. PS 3535 O25A17 1922 Robarts Library.
First publication date:
16
June
1892
Publication date note: The Harvard Advocate (June 16, 1892): 122.
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: RPO 1998.
Recent editing: 2:2002/4/3
Form: sonnet
Rhyme: abbaabbacdcdcd
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