The Corridor

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

The Corridor by Edwin Arlington Robinson

 It may have been the pride in me for aught 
I know, or just a patronizing whim; 
But call it freak of fancy, or what not, 
I cannot hide the hungry face of him.

I keep a scant half-dozen words he said, 
And every now and then I lose his name; 
He may be living or he may be dead, 
But I must have him with me all the same.

I knew it and I knew it all along,-- 
And felt it once or twice, or thought I did; 
But only as a glad man feels a song 
That sounds around a stranger's coffin lid.

I knew it, and he knew it, I believe, 
But silence held us alien to the end; 
And I have now no magic to retrieve 
That year, to stop that hunger for a friend.

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