Collected Poems (Robinson)/A Song at Shannon's
A SONG AT SHANNON'S
Two men came out of Shannon's, having knownThe faces of each other for as longAs they had listened there to an old song,Sung thinly in a wastrel monotoneBy some unhappy night-bird, who had flownToo many times and with a wing too strongTo save himself, and so done heavy wrongTo more frail elements than his alone.Slowly away they went, leaving behindMore light than was before them. Neither metThe other's eyes again or said a word.Each to his loneliness or to his kind,Went his own way, and with his own regret,Not knowing what the other may have heard.