900
What did They do since I saw Them?
Were They industrious?
So many questions to put Them
Have I the eagerness
That could I snatch Their Faces
That could Their lips reply
Not till the last was answered
Should They start for the Sky.
Not if Their Party were waiting,
Not if to talk with Me
Were to Them now, Homesickness
After Eternity.
Not if the Just suspect me
And offer a Reward
Would I restore my Booty
To that Bold Person, God --
901
Sweet, to have had them lost
For news that they be saved --
The nearer they departed Us
The nearer they, restored,
Shall stand to Our Right Hand --
Most precious and the Dead --
Next precious
Those that rose to go --
Then thought of Us, and stayed.
902
The first Day that I was a Life
I recollect it -- How still --
That last Day that I was a Life
I recollect it -- as well --
'Twas stiller -- though the first
Was still --
"Twas empty -- but the first
Was full --
This -- was my finallest Occasion --
But then
My tenderer Experiment
Toward Men --
"Which choose I"?
That -- I cannot say --
"Which choose They"?
Question Memory!
903
I hide myself within my flower,
That fading from your Vase,
You, unsuspecting, feel for me --
Almost a loneliness.
904
Had I not This, or This, I said,
Appealing to Myself,
In moment of prosperity --
Inadequate -- were Life --
"Thou hast not Me, nor Me" -- it said,
In Moment of Reverse --
"And yet Thou art industrious --
No need -- hadst Thou -- of us"?
My need -- was all I had -- I said --
The need did not reduce --
Because the food -- exterminate --
The hunger -- does not cease --
But diligence -- is sharper --
Proportioned to the Chance --
To feed upon the Retrograde --
Enfeebles -- the Advance --
905
Between My Country -- and the Others --
There is a Sea --
But Flowers -- negotiate between us --
As Ministry.
906
The Admirations -- and Contempts -- of time --
Show justest -- through an Open Tomb --
The Dying -- as it were a Height
Reorganizes Estimate
And what We saw not
We distinguish clear --
And mostly -- see not
What We saw before --
'Tis Compound Vision --
Light -- enabling Light --
The Finite -- furnished
With the Infinite --
Convex -- and Concave Witness --
Back -- toward Time --
And forward --
Toward the God of Him --
907
Till Death -- is narrow Loving --
The scantest Heart extant
Will hold you till your privilege
Of Finiteness -- be spent --
But He whose loss procures you
Such Destitution that
Your Life too abject for itself
Thenceforward imitate --
Until -- Resemblance perfect --
Yourself, for His pursuit
Delight of Nature -- abdicate --
Exhibit Love -- somewhat --
908
'Tis Sunrise -- Little Maid -- Hast Thou
No Station in the Day?
'Twas not thy wont, to hinder so --
Retrieve thine industry --
'Tis Noon -- My little Maid --
Alas -- and art thou sleeping yet?
The Lily -- waiting to be Wed --
The Bee -- Hast thou forgot?
My little Maid -- 'Tis Night -- Alas
That Night should be to thee
Instead of Morning -- Had'st thou broached
Thy little Plan to Die --
Dissuade thee, if I could not, Sweet,
I might have aided -- thee --
909
I make His Crescent fill or lack --
His Nature is at Full
Or Quarter -- as I signify --
His Tides -- do I control --
He holds superior in the Sky
Or gropes, at my Command
Behind inferior Clouds -- or round
A Mist's slow Colonnade --
But since We hold a Mutual Disc --
And front a Mutual Day --
Which is the Despot, neither knows --
Nor Whose -- the Tyranny --
910
Experience is the Angled Road
Preferred against the Mind
By -- Paradox -- the Mind itself --
Presuming it to lead
Quite Opposite -- How Complicate
The Discipline of Man --
Compelling Him to Choose Himself
His Preappointed Pain --
911
Too little way the House must lie
From every Human Heart
That holds in undisputed Lease
A white inhabitant --
Too narrow is the Right between --
Too imminent the chance --
Each Consciousness must emigrate
And lose its neighbor once --
912
Peace is a fiction of our Faith --
The Bells a Winter Night
Bearing the Neighbor out of Sound
That never did alight.
913
And this of all my Hopes
This, is the silent end
Bountiful colored, my Morning rose
Early and sere, its end
Never Bud from a Stem
Stepped with so gay a Foot
Never a Worm so confident
Bored at so brave a Root
914
I cannot be ashamed
Because I cannot see
The love you offer --
Magnitude
Reverses Modesty
And I cannot be proud
Because a Height so high
Involves Alpine
Requirements
And Services of Snow.
915
Faith -- is the Pierless Bridge
Supporting what We see
Unto the Scene that We do not --
Too slender for the eye
It bears the Soul as bold
As it were rocked in Steel
With Arms of Steel at either side --
It joins -- behind the Veil
To what, could We presume
The Bridge would cease to be
To Our far, vacillating Feet
A first Necessity.
916
His Feet are shod with Gauze --
His Helmet, is of Gold,
His Breast, a Single Onyx
With Chrysophrase, inlaid.
His Labor is a Chant --
His Idleness -- a Tune --
Oh, for a Bee's experience
Of Clovers, and of Noon!
917
Love -- is anterior to Life --
Posterior -- to Death --
Initial of Creation, and
The Exponent of Earth --
918
Only a Shrine, but Mine --
I made the Taper shine --
Madonna dim, to whom all Feet may come,
Regard a Nun --
Thou knowest every Woe --
Needless to tell thee -- so --
But can'st thou do
The Grace next to it -- heal?
That looks a harder skill to us --
Still -- just as easy, if it be thy Will
To thee -- Grant me --
Thou knowest, though, so Why tell thee?
919
If I can stop one Heart from breaking
I shall not live in vain
If I can ease one Life the Aching
Or cool one Pain
Or help one fainting Robin
Unto his Nest again
I shall not live in Vain.
920
We can but follow to the Sun --
As oft as He go down
He leave Ourselves a Sphere behind --
'Tis mostly -- following --
We go no further with the Dust
Than to the Earthen Door --
And then the Panels are reversed --
And we behold -- no more.
921
If it had no pencil
Would it try mine --
Worn -- now -- and dull -- sweet,
Writing much to thee.
If it had no word,
Would it make the Daisy,
Most as big as I was,
When it plucked me?
922
Those who have been in the Grave the longest --
Those who begin Today --
Equally perish from our Practise --
Death is the other way --
Foot of the Bold did least attempt it --
It -- is the White Exploit --
Once to achieve, annuls the power
Once to communicate --
923
How the Waters closed above Him
We shall never know --
How He stretched His Anguish to us
That -- is covered too --
Spreads the Pond Her Base of Lilies
Bold above the Boy
Whose unclaimed Hat and Jacket
Sum the History --
924
Love -- is that later Thing than Death --
More previous -- than Life --
Confirms it at its entrance -- And
Usurps it -- of itself --
Tastes Death -- the first -- to hand the sting
The Second -- to its friend --
Disarms the little interval --
Deposits Him with God --
Then hovers -- an inferior Guard --
Lest this Beloved Charge
Need -- once in an Eternity --
A smaller than the Large --
925
Struck, was I, not yet by Lightning --
Lightning -- lets away
Power to perceive His Process
With Vitality.
Maimed -- was I -- yet not by Venture --
Stone of stolid Boy --
Nor a Sportsman's Peradventure --
Who mine Enemy?
Robbed -- was I -- intact to Bandit --
All my Mansion torn --
Sun -- withdrawn to Recognition --
Furthest shining -- done --
Yet was not the foe -- of any --
Not the smallest Bird
In the nearest Orchard dwelling
Be of Me -- afraid.
Most -- I love the Cause that slew Me.
Often as I die
Its beloved Recognition
Holds a Sun on Me --
Best -- at Setting -- as is Nature's --
Neither witnessed Rise
Till the infinite Aurora
In the other's eyes.
926
Patience -- has a quiet Outer --
Patience -- Look within --
Is an Insect's futile forces
Infinites -- between --
'Scaping one -- against the other
Fruitlesser to fling --
Patience -- is the Smile's exertion
Through the quivering --
927
Absent Place -- an April Day --
Daffodils a-blow
Homesick curiosity
To the Souls that snow --
Drift may block within it
Deeper than without --
Daffodil delight but
Him it duplicate --
928
The Heart has narrow Banks
It measures like the Sea
In mighty -- unremitting Bass
And Blue Monotony
Till Hurricane bisect
And as itself discerns
Its sufficient Area
The Heart convulsive learns
That Calm is but a Wall
Of unattempted Gauze
An instant's Push demolishes
A Questioning -- dissolves.
929
How far is it to Heaven?
As far as Death this way --
Of River or of Ridge beyond
Was no discovery.
How far is it to Hell?
As far as Death this way --
How far left hand the Sepulchre
Defies Topography.
930
There is a June when Corn is cut
And Roses in the Seed --
A Summer briefer than the first
But tenderer indeed
As should a Face supposed the Grave's
Emerge a single Noon
In the Vermilion that it wore
Affect us, and return --
Two Seasons, it is said, exist --
The Summer of the Just,
And this of Ours, diversified
With Prospect, and with Frost --
May not our Second with its First
So infinite compare
That We but recollect the one
The other to prefer?
931
Noon -- is the Hinge of Day --
Evening -- the Tissue Door --
Morning -- the East compelling the sill
Till all the World is ajar --
932
My best Acquaintances are those
With Whom I spoke no Word --
The Stars that stated come to Town
Esteemed Me never rude
Although to their Celestial Call
I failed to make reply --
My constant -- reverential Face
Sufficient Courtesy.
933
Two Travellers perishing in Snow
The Forests as they froze
Together heard them strengthening
Each other with the words
That Heaven if Heaven -- must contain
What Either left behind
And then the cheer too solemn grew
For language, and the wind
Long steps across the features took
That Love had touched the Morn
With reverential Hyacinth --
The taleless Days went on
Till Mystery impatient drew
And those They left behind
Led absent, were procured of Heaven
As Those first furnished, said --
934
That is solemn we have ended
Be it but a Play
Or a Glee among the Garret
Or a Holiday
Or a leaving Home, or later,
Parting with a World
We have understood for better
Still to be explained.
935
Death leaves Us homesick, who behind,
Except that it is gone
Are ignorant of its Concern
As if it were not born.
Through all their former Places, we
Like Individuals go
Who something lost, the seeking for
Is all that's left them, now --
936
This Dust, and its Feature --
Accredited -- Today --
Will in a second Future --
Cease to identify --
This Mind, and its measure --
A too minute Area
For its enlarged inspection's
Comparison -- appear --
This World, and its species
A too concluded show
For its absorbed Attention's
Remotest scrutiny --
937
I felt a Cleaving in my Mind --
As if my Brain had split --
I tried to match it -- Seam by Seam --
But could not make it fit.
The thought behind, I strove to join
Unto the thought before --
But Sequence ravelled out of Sound
Like Balls -- upon a Floor.
938
Fairer through Fading -- as the Day
Into the Darkness dips away --
Half Her Complexion of the Sun --
Hindering -- Haunting -- Perishing --
Rallies Her Glow, like a dying Friend --
Teasing with glittering Amend --
Only to aggravate the Dark
Through an expiring -- perfect -- look --
939
What I see not, I better see --
Through Faith -- my Hazel Eye
Has periods of shutting --
But, No lid has Memory --
For frequent, all my sense obscured
I equally behold
As someone held a light unto
The Features so beloved ---
And I arise -- and in my Dream --
Do Thee distinguished Grace --
Till jealous Daylight interrupt --
And mar thy perfectness --
940
On that dear Frame the Years had worn
Yet precious as the House
In which We first experienced Light
The Witnessing, to Us --
Precious! It was conceiveless fair
As Hands the Grave had grimed
Should softly place within our own
Denying that they died.
941
The Lady feeds Her little Bird
At rarer intervals --
The little Bird would not dissent
But meekly recognize
The Gulf between the Hand and Her
And crumbless and afar
And fainting, on Her yellow Knee
Fall softly, and adore --
942
Snow beneath whose chilly softness
Some that never lay
Make their first Repose this Winter
I admonish Thee
Blanket Wealthier the Neighbor
We so new bestow
Than thine acclimated Creature
Wilt Thou, Austere Snow?
943
A Coffin -- is a small Domain,
Yet able to contain
A Citizen of Paradise
In it diminished Plane.
A Grave -- is a restricted Breadth --
Yet ampler than the Sun --
And all the Seas He populates
And Lands He looks upon
To Him who on its small Repose
Bestows a single Friend --
Circumference without Relief --
Or Estimate -- or End --
944
I learned -- at least -- what Home could be --
How ignorant I had been
Of pretty ways of Covenant --
How awkward at the Hymn
Round our new Fireside -- but for this --
This pattern -- of the Way --
Whose Memory drowns me, like the Dip
Of a Celestial Sea --
What Mornings in our Garden -- guessed --
What Bees -- for us -- to hum --
With only Birds to interrupt
The Ripple of our Theme --
And Task for Both --
When Play be done --
Your Problem -- of the Brain --
And mine -- some foolisher effect --
A Ruffle -- or a Tune --
The Afternoons -- Together spent --
And Twilight -- in the Lanes --
Some ministry to poorer lives --
Seen poorest -- thro' our gains --
And then Return -- and Night -- and Home --
And then away to You to pass --
A new -- diviner -- care --
Till Sunrise take us back to Scene --
Transmuted -- Vivider --
This seems a Home --
And Home is not --
But what that Place could be --
Afflicts me -- as a Setting Sun --
Where Dawn -- knows how to be --
945
This is a Blossom of the Brain --
A small -- italic Seed
Lodged by Design or Happening
The Spirit fructified --
Shy as the Wind of his Chambers
Swift as a Freshet's Tongue
So of the Flower of the Soul
Its process is unknown.
When it is found, a few rejoice
The Wise convey it Home
Carefully cherishing the spot
If other Flower become.
When it is lost, that Day shall be
The Funeral of God,
Upon his Breast, a closing Soul
The Flower of our Lord.
946
It is an honorable Thought
And make One lift One's Hat
As One met sudden Gentlefolk
Upon a daily Street
That We've immortal Place
Though Pyramids decay
And Kingdoms, like the Orchard
Flit Russetly away
947
Of Tolling Bell I ask the cause?
"A Soul has gone to Heaven"
I'm answered in a lonesome tone --
Is Heaven then a Prison?
That Bells should ring till all should know
A Soul had gone to Heaven
Would seem to me the more the way
A Good News should be given.
948
'Twas Crisis -- All the length had passed --
That dull -- benumbing time
There is in Fever or Event --
And now the Chance had come --
The instant holding in its claw
The privilege to live
Or warrant to report the Soul
The other side the Grave.
The Muscles grappled as with leads
That would not let the Will --
The Spirit shook the Adamant --
But could not make it feel.
The Second poised -- debated -- shot --
Another had begun --
And simultaneously, a Soul
Escaped the House unseen --
949
Under the Light, yet under,
Under the Grass and the Dirt,
Under the Beetle's Cellar
Under the Clover's Root,
Further than Arm could stretch
Were it Giant long,
Further than Sunshine could
Were the Day Year long,
Over the Light, yet over,
Over the Arc of the Bird --
Over the Comet's chimney --
Over the Cubit's Head,
Further than Guess can gallop
Further than Riddle ride --
Oh for a Disc to the Distance
Between Ourselves and the Dead!
950
The Sunset stopped on Cottages
Where Sunset hence must be
For treason not of His, but Life's,
Gone Westerly, Today --
The Sunset stopped on Cottages
Where Morning just begun --
What difference, after all, Thou mak'st
Thou supercilious Sun?
951
As Frost is best conceived
By force of its Result --
Affliction is inferred
By subsequent effect --
If when the sun reveal,
The Garden keep the Gash --
If as the Days resume
The wilted countenance
Cannot correct the crease
Or counteract the stain --
Presumption is Vitality
Was somewhere put in twain.
952
A Man may make a Remark --
In itself -- a quiet thing
That may furnish the Fuse unto a Spark
In dormant nature -- lain --
Let us deport -- with skill --
Let us discourse -- with care --
Powder exists in Charcoal --
Before it exists in Fire.
953
A Door just opened on a street --
I -- lost -- was passing by --
An instant's Width of Warmth disclosed --
And Wealth -- and Company.
The Door as instant shut -- And I --
I -- lost -- was passing by --
Lost doubly -- but by contrast -- most --
Informing -- misery --
954
The Chemical conviction
That Nought be lost
Enable in Disaster
My fractured Trust --
The Faces of the Atoms
If I shall see
How more the Finished Creatures
Departed me!
955
The Hollows round His eager Eyes
Were Pages where to read
Pathetic Histories -- although
Himself had not complained.
Biography to All who passed
Of Unobtrusive Pain
Except for the italic Face
Endured, unhelped -- unknown.
956
What shall I do when the Summer troubles --
What, when the Rose is ripe --
What when the Eggs fly off in Music
From the Maple Keep?
What shall I do when the Skies a'chirrup
Drop a Tune on me --
When the Bee hangs all Noon in the Buttercup
What will become of me?
Oh, when the Squirrel fills His Pockets
And the Berries stare
How can I bear their jocund Faces
Thou from Here, so far?
'Twouldn't afflict a Robin --
All His Goods have Wings --
I -- do not fly, so wherefore
My Perennial Things?
957
As One does Sickness over
In convalescent Mind,
His scrutiny of Chances
By blessed Health obscured --
As One rewalks a Precipice
And whittles at the Twig
That held Him from Perdition
Sown sidewise in the Crag
A Custom of the Soul
Far after suffering
Identity to question
For evidence't has been --
958
We met as Sparks -- Diverging Flints
Sent various -- scattered ways --
We parted as the Central Flint
Were cloven with an Adze --
Subsisting on the Light We bore
Before We felt the Dark --
A Flint unto this Day -- perhaps --
But for that single Spark.
959
A loss of something ever felt I --
The first that I could recollect
Bereft I was -- of what I knew not
Too young that any should suspect
A Mourner walked among the children
I notwithstanding went about
As one bemoaning a Dominion
Itself the only Prince cast out --
Elder, Today, a session wiser
And fainter, too, as Wiseness is --
I find myself still softly searching
For my Delinguent Palaces --
And a Suspicion, like a Finger
Touches my Forehead now and then
That I am looking oppositely
For the site of the Kingdom of Heaven --
960
As plan for Noon and plan for Night
So differ Life and Death
In positive Prospective --
The Foot upon the Earth
At Distance, and Achievement, strains,
The Foot upon the Grave
Makes effort at conclusion
Assisted faint of Love.
961
Wert Thou but ill -- that I might show thee
How long a Day I could endure
Though thine attention stop not on me
Nor the least signal, Me assure --
Wert Thou but Stranger in ungracious country --
And Mine -- the Door
Thou paused at, for a passing bounty --
No More --
Accused -- wert Thou -- and Myself -- Tribunal --
Convicted -- Sentenced -- Ermine -- not to Me
Half the Condition, thy Reverse -- to follow --
Just to partake -- the infamy --
The Tenant of the Narrow Cottage, wert Thou --
Permit to be
The Housewife in thy low attendance
Contenteth Me --
No Service hast Thou, I would not achieve it --
To die -- or live --
The first -- Sweet, proved I, ere I saw thee --
For Life -- be Love --
962
Midsummer, was it, when They died --
A full, and perfect time --
The Summer closed upon itself
In Consummated Bloom --
The Corn, her furthest kernel filled
Before the coming Flail --
When These -- leaned unto Perfectness --
Through Haze of Burial --
963
A nearness to Tremendousness --
An Agony procures --
Affliction ranges Boundlessness --
Vicinity to Laws
Contentment's quiet Suburb --
Affliction cannot stay
In Acres -- Its Location
Is Illocality --
964
"Unto Me?" I do not know you --
Where may be your House?
"I am Jesus -- Late of Judea --
Now -- of Paradise" --
Wagons -- have you -- to convey me?
This is far from Thence --
"Arms of Mine -- sufficient Phaeton --
Trust Omnipotence" --
I am spotted -- "I am Pardon" --
I am small -- "The Least
Is esteemed in Heaven the Chiefest --
Occupy my House" --
965
Denial -- is the only fact
Perceived by the Denied --
Whose Will -- a numb significance --
The Day the Heaven died --
And all the Earth strove common round --
Without Delight, or Beam --
What Comfort was it Wisdom -- was --
The spoiler of Our Home?
966
All forgot for recollecting
Just a paltry One --
All forsook, for just a Stranger's
New Accompanying --
Grace of Wealth, and Grace of Station
Less accounted than
An unknown Esteem possessing --
Estimate -- Who can --
Home effaced -- Her faces dwindled --
Nature -- altered small --
Sun -- if shone -- or Storm -- if shattered --
Overlooked I all --
Dropped -- my fate -- a timid Pebble --
In thy bolder Sea --
Prove -- me -- Sweet -- if I regret it --
Prove Myself -- of Thee --
967
Pain -- expands the Time --
Ages coil within
The minute Circumference
Of a single Brain --
Pain contracts -- the Time --
Occupied with Shot
Gamuts of Eternities
Are as they were not --
968
Fitter to see Him, I may be
For the long Hindrance -- Grace -- to Me --
With Summers, and with Winters, grow,
Some passing Year -- A trait bestow
To make Me fairest of the Earth --
The Waiting -- then -- will seem so worth
I shall impute with half a pain
The blame that I was chosen -- then --
Time to anticipate His Gaze --
It's first -- Delight -- and then -- Surprise --
The turning o'er and o'er my face
For Evidence it be the Grace --
He left behind One Day -- So less
He seek Conviction, That -- be This --
I only must not grow so new
That He'll mistake -- and ask for me
Of me -- when first unto the Door
I go -- to Elsewhere go no more --
I only must not change so fair
He'll sigh -- "The Other -- She -- is Where?"
The Love, tho', will array me right
I shall be perfect -- in His sight --
If He perceive the other Truth --
Upon an Excellenter Youth --
How sweet I shall not lack in Vain --
But gain -- thro' loss -- Through Grief -- obtain --
The Beauty that reward Him best --
The Beauty of Demand -- at Rest --
969
He who in Himself believes --
Fraud cannot presume --
Faith is Constancy's Result --
And assumes -- from Home --
Cannot perish, though it fail
Every second time --
But defaced Vicariously --
For Some Other Shame --
970
Color -- Caste -- Denomination --
These -- are Time's Affair --
Death's diviner Classifying
Does not know they are --
As in sleep -- All Hue forgotten --
Tenets -- put behind --
Death's large -- Democratic fingers
Rub away the Brand --
If Circassian -- He is careless --
If He put away
Chrysalis of Blonde -- or Umber --
Equal Butterfly --
They emerge from His Obscuring --
What Death -- knows so well --
Our minuter intuitions --
Deem unplausible --
971
Robbed by Death -- but that was easy --
To the failing Eye
I could hold the latest Glowing --
Robbed by Liberty
For Her Jugular Defences --
This, too, I endured --
Hint of Glory -- it afforded --
For the Brave Beloved --
Fraud of Distance -- Fraud of Danger,
Fraud of Death -- to bear --
It is Bounty -- to Suspense's
Vague Calamity --
Stalking our entire Possession
On a Hair's result --
Then -- seesawing -- coolly -- on it --
Trying if it split --
972
Unfulfilled to Observation --
Incomplete -- to Eye --
But to Faith -- a Revolution
In Locality --
Unto Us -- the Suns extinguish --
To our Opposite --
New Horizons -- they embellish --
Fronting Us -- with Night.
973
'Twas awkward, but it fitted me --
An Ancient fashioned Heart --
Its only lore -- its Steadfastness --
In Change -- unerudite --
It only moved as do the Suns --
For merit of Return --
Or Birds -- confirmed perpetual
By Alternating Zone --
I only have it not Tonight
In its established place --
For technicality of Death --
Omitted in the Lease --
974
The Soul's distinct connection
With immortality
Is best disclosed by Danger
Or quick Calamity --
As Lightning on a Landscape
Exhibits Sheets of Place --
Not yet suspected -- but for Flash --
And Click -- and Suddenness.
975
The Mountain sat upon the Plain
In his tremendous Chair --
His observation omnifold,
His inquest, everywhere --
The Seasons played around his knees
Like Children round a sire --
Grandfather of the Days is He
Of Dawn, the Ancestor --
976
Death is a Dialogue between
The Spirit and the Dust.
"Dissolve" says Death -- The Spirit "Sir
I have another Trust" --
Death doubts it -- Argues from the Ground --
The Spirit turns away
Just laying off for evidence
An Overcoat of Clay.
977
Besides this May
We know
There is Another --
How fair
Our Speculations of the Foreigner!
Some know Him whom We knew --
Sweet Wonder --
A Nature be
Where Saints, and our plain going Neighbor
Keep May!
978
It bloomed and dropt, a Single Noon --
The Flower -- distinct and Red --
I, passing, thought another Noon
Another in its stead
Will equal glow, and thought no More
But came another Day
To find the Species disappeared --
The Same Locality --
The Sun in place -- no other fraud
On Nature's perfect Sum --
Had I but lingered Yesterday --
Was my retrieveless blame --
Much Flowers of this and further Zones
Have perished in my Hands
For seeking its Resemblance --
But unapproached it stands --
The single Flower of the Earth
That I, in passing by
Unconscious was -- Great Nature's Face
Passed infinite by Me --
979
This Merit hath the worst --
It cannot be again --
When Fate hath taunted last
And thrown Her furthest Stone --
The Maimed may pause, and breathe,
And glance securely round --
The Deer attracts no further
Than it resists -- the Hound --
980
Purple -- is fashionable twice --
This season of the year,
And when a soul perceives itself
To be an Emperor.
981
As Sleigh Bells seem in summer
Or Bees, at Christmas show --
So fairy -- so fictitious
The individuals do
Repealed from observation --
A Party that we knew --
More distant in an instant
Than Dawn in Timbuctoo.
982
No Other can reduce
Our mortal Consequence
Like the remembering it be nought
A Period from hence
But Contemplation for
Contemporaneous Nought
Our Single Competition
Jehovah's Estimate.
983
Ideals are the Fairly Oil
With which we help the Wheel
But when the Vital Axle turns
The Eye rejects the Oil.
984
'Tis Anguish grander than Delight
'Tis Resurrection Pain --
The meeting Bands of smitten Face
We questioned to, again.
'Tis Transport wild as thrills the Graves
When Cerements let go
And Creatures clad in Miracle
Go up by Two and Two.
985
The Missing All -- prevented Me
From missing minor Things.
If nothing larger than a World's
Departure from a Hinge --
Or Sun's extinction, be observed --
'Twas not so large that I
Could lift my Forehead from my work
For Curiosity.
986
A narrow Fellow in the Grass
Occasionally rides --
You may have met Him -- did you not
His notice sudden is --
The Grass divides as with a Comb --
A spotted shaft is seen --
And then it closes at your feet
And opens further on --
He likes a Boggy Acre
A Floor too cool for Corn --
Yet when a Boy, and Barefoot --
I more than once at Noon
Have passed, I thought, a Whip lash
Unbraiding in the Sun
When stooping to secure it
It wrinkled, and was gone --
Several of Nature's People
I know, and they know me --
I feel for them a transport
Of cordiality --
But never met this Fellow
Attended, or alone
Without a tighter breathing
And Zero at the Bone --
987
The Leaves like Women interchange
Exclusive Confidence --
Somewhat of nods and somewhat
Portentous inference.
The Parties in both cases
Enjoining secrecy --
Inviolable compact
To notoriety.
988
The Definition of Beauty is
That Definition is none --
Of Heaven, easing Analysis,
Since Heaven and He are one.
989
Gratitude -- is not the mention
Of a Tenderness,
But its still appreciation
Out of Plumb of Speech.
When the Sea return no Answer
By the Line and Lead
Proves it there's no Sea, or rather
A remoter Bed?
990
Not all die early, dying young --
Maturity of Fate
Is consummated equally
In Ages, or a Night --
A Hoary Boy, I've known to drop
Whole statured -- by the side
Of Junior of Fourscore -- 'twas Act
Not Period -- that died.
991
She sped as Petals of a Rose
Offended by the Wind --
A frail Aristocrat of Time
Indemnity to find --
Leaving on nature -- a Default
As Cricket or as Bee --
But Andes in the Bosoms where
She had begun to lie --
992
The Dust behind I strove to join
Unto the Disk before --
But Sequence ravelled out of Sound
Like Balls upon a Floor --
993
We miss Her, not because We see --
The Absence of an Eye --
Except its Mind accompany
Abridge Society
As slightly as the Routes of Stars --
Ourselves -- asleep below --
We know that their superior Eyes
Include Us -- as they go --
994
Partake as doth the Bee,
Abstemiously.
The Rose is an Estate --
In Sicily.
995
This was in the White of the Year --
That -- was in the Green --
Drifts were as difficult then to think
As Daisies now to be seen --
Looking back is best that is left
Or if it be -- before --
Retrospection is Prospect's half,
Sometimes, almost more.
996
We'll pass without the parting
So to spare
Certificate of Absence --
Deeming where
I left Her I could find Her
If I tried --
This way, I keep from missing
Those that died.
997
Crumbling is not an instant's Act
A fundamental pause
Dilapidation's processes
Are organized Decays.
'Tis first a Cobweb on the Soul
A Cuticle of Dust
A Borer in the Axis
An Elemental Rust --
Ruin is formal -- Devil's work
Consecutive and slow --
Fail in an instant, no man did
Slipping -- is Crash's law.
998
Best Things dwell out of Sight
The Pearl -- the Just -- Our Thought.
Most shun the Public Air
Legitimate, and Rare --
The Capsule of the Wind
The Capsule of the Mind
Exhibit here, as doth a Burr --
Germ's Germ be where?
999
Superfluous were the Sun
When Excellence be dead
He were superfluous every Day
For every Day be said
That syllable whose Faith
Just saves it from Despair
And whose "I'll meet You" hesitates
If Love inquire "Where"?
Upon His dateless Fame
Our Periods may lie
As Stars that drop anonymous
From an abundant sky.