Edwin Arlington Robinson - Neighbors lyrics

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 surprise,   Nor much that need be told: Love, with his gift of pain, had given   More than one heart could hold.