Neighbors

Read 'Neighbors' by 'Edwin Arlington Robinson' and provide your summary and literary analysis in the comments section below.

Neighbors by Edwin Arlington Robinson

 As often as we thought of her, 
We thought of a gray life 
That made a quaint economist 
Of a wolf-haunted wife; 
We made the best of all she bore 
That was not ours to bear, 
And honored her for wearing things 
That were not things to wear.

There was a distance in her look 
That made us look again; 
And if she smiled, we might believe 
That we had looked in vain. 
Rarely she came inside our doors, 
And had not long to stay; 
And when she left, it seemed somehow 
That she was far away.

At last, when we had all forgot 
That all is here to change, 
A shadow on the commonplace 
Was for a moment strange. 
Yet there was nothing for suprise, 
Nor much that need be told: 
Love, with its gift of pain, had given 
More than one heart could hold.

Form: Ballad Comments

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