Isaac and Archibald

Isaac and Archibald, blank‐verse narrative by E.A. Robinson, published in Captain Craig (1902).

The narrator tells how, as a small boy, he was taken by the old farmer Isaac to visit his lifelong friend Archibald. During the journey, Isaac confided his uneasiness about Archibald's failing health and competence, and also his mellow philosophy of life, based on honest emotion and sympathy. They arrive at Archibald's comfortable farm, to find its owner hearty and amiable. When Isaac walks out to inspect his friend's acres, Archibald confesses doubts of Isaac's health, and makes a like confession of simple faith in “the light, my boy,—the light behind the stars…. Live to see clearly, and the light will come.” The narrator reflects on this day, which has passed with his friends “to the silence of the loved and well‐forgotten,” and concludes reverently, “They were old men, and I may laugh at them because I knew them.”