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 --
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. 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!
903I hide myself within my flower, That fading from your Vase, You, unsuspecting, feel for me -- Almost a loneliness.
904Had 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 --
905Between My Country -- and the Others -- There is a Sea --
But Flowers -- negotiate between us -- As Ministry.
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 --
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 --
'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 --
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 --
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 -
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 --
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
914I 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.
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.
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!
917Love -- is anterior to Life -- Posterior -- to Death -- Initial of Creation, and The Exponent of Earth --
918Only 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?
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.
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.
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 --
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 --
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 --
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.
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 --
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 --
928The 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.
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.
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?
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.
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 --
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.
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 --
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 --
937I 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.
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 --
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 --
940On 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.
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 --
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?
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 --
944I 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 --
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.
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
947Of 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.
'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 --
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!
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?
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.
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.
953A 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 --
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!
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.
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 --
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.
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 --
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.
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 --
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 --
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 --
"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 --
I am spotted -- "I am Pardon" -- I am small -- "The Least
Is esteemed in Heaven the Chiefest -- Occupy my House" --
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?
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 --
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 --
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 --
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 --
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 --
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 --
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 --
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 --