The Pilot

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

The Pilot by Edwin Arlington Robinson

 From the Past and Unavailing 
Out of cloudland we are steering: 
After groping, after fearing, 
Into starlight we come trailing, 
And we find the stars are true.
Still, O comrade, what of you? 
You are gone, but we are sailing, 
And the old ways are all new. 

For the Lost and Unreturning 
We have drifted, we have waited;
Uncommanded and unrated, 
We have tossed and wandered, yearning 
For a charm that comes no more 
From the old lights by the shore: 
We have shamed ourselves in learning
What you knew so long before. 

For the Breed of the Far-going 
Who are strangers, and all brothers, 
May forget no more than others 
Who looked seaward with eyes flowing.
But are brothers to bewail 
One who fought so foul a gale? 
You have won beyond our knowing, 
You are gone, but yet we sail.

Form: Elegy Comments

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