Revelation

by Robert Frost

We make ourselves a place apart
 Behind light words that tease and flout,
But oh, the agitated heart
 Till someone find us really out.

'Tis pity if the case require
 (Or so we say) that in the end
We speak the literal to inspire
 The understanding of a friend.

But so with all, from babes that play
 At hide-and-seek to God afar,
So all who hide too well away
 Must speak and tell us there they are.


From A Boy's Will, published by Henry Holt and Company © 1913 (in the public domain)