she spared him the familiar guile, So easily achieved, That only made a man to smile And left him undeceived

Observant of the way she told 

    So much of what was true, 

No vanity could long withhold 

    Regard that was her due: 

She spared him the familiar guile, 

    So easily achieved, 

That only made a man to smile 

    And left him undeceived. 

 

Aware that all imagining 

    Of more than what she meant 

Would urge an end of everything, 

    He stayed; and when he went, 

They parted with a merry word 

    That was to him as light 

As any that was ever heard 

    Upon a starry night. 

 

She smiled a little, knowing well 

    That he would not remark 

The ruins of a day that fell 

    Around her in the dark: 

He saw no ruins anywhere, 

    Nor fancied there were scars 

On anyone who lingered there, 

    Alone below the stars. 

 

[Edwin Arlington Robinson {1869-1935} 'Tact', from Selected Poems, edited by Morton Dauwen Zabel]