The Fingers of the Light
Tapped soft upon the Town With "I am great and cannot wait So therefore let me in."
"You're soon," the Town replied, "My Faces are asleep -
But swear, and I will let you by, You will not wake them up."
The easy Guest complied
But once within the Town
The transport of His Countenance Awakened Maid and Man
The Neighbor in the Pool
Upon His Hip elate
Made loud obeisance and the Gnat Held up His Cup for Light.
The Stimulus, beyond the Grave His Countenance to see
Supports me like imperial Drams Afforded Day by Day.
Aurora is the effort
Of the Celestial Face
Unconsciousness of Perfectness To simulate, to Us.
Dying at my music!
Bubble! Bubble!
Hold me till the Octave's run! Quick! Burst the Windows! Ritardando!
Phials left, and the Sun!
There is no Silence in the Earth -- so silent As that endured
Which uttered, would discourage Nature And haunt the World.
Bind me -- I still can sing -- Banish -- my mandolin Strikes true within --
Slay -- and my Soul shall rise Chanting to Paradise --
Still thine.
The first We knew of Him was Death -- The second -- was -- Renown -- Except the first had justified
The second had not been.
1007 Falsehood of Thee could I suppose 'Twould undermine the Sill
To which my Faith pinned Block by Block Her Cedar Citadel.
How still the Bells in Steeples stand Till swollen with the Sky
They leap upon their silver Feet In frantic Melody!
I was a Phoebe -- nothing more -- A Phoebe -- nothing less -- The little note that others dropt I fitted into place --
I dwelt too low that any seek -- Too shy, that any blame -- A Phoebe makes a little print Upon the Floors of Fame --
1010Up Life's Hill with my my little Bundle If I prove it steep --
If a Discouragement withhold me -- If my newest step
Older feel than the Hope that prompted -- Spotless be from blame
Heart that proposed as Heart that accepted Homelessness, for Home --
She rose as high as His Occasion Then sought the Dust --
And lower lay in low Westminster For Her brief Crest --
Which is best? Heaven -- Or only Heaven to come
With that old Codicil of Doubt? I cannot help esteem
The "Bird within the Hand" Superior to the one
The "Bush" may yield me Or may not
Too late to choose again.
Too scanty 'twas to die for you, The merest Greek could that. The living, Sweet, is costlier -- I offer even that --
The Dying, is a trifle, past, But living, this include
The dying multifold -- without The Respite to be dead.
Did We abolish Frost
The Summer would not cease -- If Seasons perish or prevail Is optional with Us --
Were it but Me that gained the Height -- Were it but They, that failed!
How many things the Dying play Might they but live, they would!
The Hills in Purple syllables The Day's Adventures tell To little Groups of Continents Just going Home from School.
1017To die -- without the Dying And live -- without the Life This is the hardest Miracle Propounded to Belief.
1018Who saw no Sunrise cannot say The Countenance 'twould be. Who guess at seeing, guess at loss Of the Ability.
The Emigrant of Light, it is
Afflicted for the Day.
The Blindness that beheld and blest -- And could not find its Eye.
My Season's furthest Flower -- I tenderer commend
Because I found Her Kinsmanless, A Grace without a Friend.
Trudging to Eden, looking backward,
I met Somebody's little Boy
Asked him his name -- He lisped me "Trotwood" -- Lady, did He belong to thee?
Would it comfort -- to know I met him -- And that He didn't look afraid?
I couldn't weep -- for so many smiling New Acquaintance -- this Baby made --
Far from Love the Heavenly Father Leads the Chosen Child,
Oftener through Realm of Briar Than the Meadow mild.
Oftener by the Claw of Dragon Than the Hand of Friend
Guides the Little One predestined To the Native Land.
I knew that I had gained And yet I knew not how By Diminution it was not But Discipline unto
A Rigor unrelieved
Except by the Content Another bear its Duplicate In other Continent.
It rises -- passes -- on our South Inscribes a simple Noon -- Cajoles a Moment with the Spires And infinite is gone --
1024So large my Will The little that I may Embarrasses
Like gentle infamy --
Affront to Him
For whom the Whole were small Affront to me
Who know His Meed of all.
Earth at the best
Is but a scanty Toy -- Bought, carried Home To Immortality.
It looks so small
We chiefly wonder then At our Conceit
In purchasing.
The Products of my Farm are these Sufficient for my Own
And here and there a Benefit Unto a Neighbor's Bin.
With Us, 'tis Harvest all the Year For when the Frosts begin We just reverse the Zodiac And fetch the Acres in.
1026The Dying need but little, Dear, A Glass of Water's all,
A Flower's unobtrusive Face To punctuate the Wall,
A Fan, perhaps, a Friend's Regret And Certainty that one
No color in the Rainbow
Perceive, when you are gone.
My Heart upon a little Plate Her Palate to delight
A Berry or a Bun, would be, Might it an Apricot!
'Twas my one Glory -- Let it be
Remembered
I was owned of Thee --
1029 Nor Mountain hinder Me Nor Sea --
Who's Baltic --
Who's Cordillera?
That Such have died enable Us The tranquiller to die --
That Such have lived,
Certificate for Immortality.
Fate slew Him, but He did not drop -- She felled -- He did not fall --
Impaled Him on Her fiercest stakes -- He neutralized them all --
She stung Him -- sapped His firm Advance -- But when Her Worst was done
And He -- unmoved regarded Her --
Acknowledged Him a Man.
Who is the East?
The Yellow Man
Who may be Purple if He can That carries in the Sun.
Who is the West?
The Purple Man
Who may be Yellow if He can That lets Him out again. Said Death to Passion
"Give of thine an Acre unto me."
Said Passion, through contracting Breaths "A Thousand Times Thee Nay."
Bore Death from Passion All His East
He -- sovereign as the Sun Resituated in the West And the Debate was done.
His Bill an Auger is
His Head, a Cap and Frill He laboreth at every Tree A Worm, His utmost Goal.
Bee! I'm expecting you! Was saying Yesterday To Somebody you know That you were due --
The Frogs got Home last Week -- Are settled, and at work --
Birds, mostly back --
The Clover warm and thick --
You'll get my Letter by The seventeenth; Reply Or better, be with me -- Yours, Fly.
Satisfaction -- is the Agent Of Satiety --
Want -- a quiet Commissary For Infinity.
To possess, is past the instant We achieve the Joy --
Immortality contented
Were Anomaly.
Here, where the Daisies fit my Head 'Tis easiest to lie
And every Grass that plays outside Is sorry, some, for me.
Where I am not afraid to go I may confide my Flower -- Who was not Enemy of Me Will gentle be, to Her.
Nor separate, Herself and Me By Distances become -- A single Bloom we constitute Departed, or at Home --
1038Her little Parasol to lift And once to let it down Her whole Responsibility -- To imitate be Mine.
A Summer further I must wear, Content if Nature's Drawer Present me from sepulchral Crease As blemishless, as Her.
1039I heard, as if I had no Ear
Until a Vital Word
Came all the way from Life to me And then I knew I heard.
I saw, as if my Eye were on
Another, till a Thing
And now I know 'twas Light, because It fitted them, came in.
I dwelt, as if Myself, were out, My Body but within
Until a Might detected me And set my kernel in.
And Spirit turned unto the Dust "Old Friend, thou knowest me," And Time went out to tell the News And met Eternity.
1040Not so the infinite Relations -- Below Division is Adhesion's forfeit -- On High Affliction but a Speculation -- And Woe A Fallacy, a Figment, We knew --
1041Somewhat, to hope for, Be it ne'er so far
Is Capital against Despair --
Somewhat, to suffer,
Be it ne'er so keen --
If terminable, may be borne. Spring comes on the World -- I sight the Aprils --
Hueless to me until thou come As, till the Bee
Blossoms stand negative, Touched to Conditions
By a Hum.
Lest this be Heaven indeed An Obstacle is given
That always gauges a Degree Between Ourself and Heaven.
A Sickness of this World it most occasions When Best Men die.
A Wishfulness their far Condition
To occupy.
A Chief indifference, as Foreign A World must be
Themselves forsake -- contented, For Deity.
Nature rarer uses Yellow
Than another Hue.
Saves she all of that for Sunsets Prodigal of Blue
Spending Scarlet, like a Woman Yellow she affords
Only scantly and selectly
Like a Lover's Words.
I've dropped my Brain -- My Soul is numb -- The Veins that used to run
Stop palsied -- 'tis Paralysis
Done perfecter on stone
Vitality is Carved and cool.
My nerve in Marble lies -
A Breathing Woman
Yesterday -- Endowed with Paradise.
Not dumb -- I had a sort that moved -- A Sense that smote and stirred -- Instincts for Dance -- a caper part -- An Aptitude for Bird --
Who wrought Carrara in me
And chiselled all my tune
Were it a Witchcraft -- were it Death -- I've still a chance to strain
To Being, somewhere -- Motion -- Breath -- Though Centuries beyond,
And every limit a Decade --
I'll shiver, satisfied.
The Opening and the Close Of Being, are alike
Or differ, if they do,
As Bloom upon a Stalk.
That from an equal Seed Unto an equal Bud
Go parallel, perfected In that they have decayed.
Reportless Subjects, to the Quick Continual addressed -
But foreign as the Dialect
Of Danes, unto the rest.
Reportless Measures, to the Ear Susceptive -- stimulus -
But like an Oriental Tale
To others, fabulous --
Pain has but one Acquaintance And that is Death --
Each one unto the other
Society enough.
Pain is the Junior Party
By just a Second's right -- Death tenderly assists Him And then absconds from Sight.
As willing lid o'er weary eye The Evening on the Day leans Till of all our nature's House Remains but Balcony
1051 I cannot meet the Spring unmoved -- I feel the old desire --
A Hurry with a lingering, mixed, A Warrant to be fair --
A Competition in my sense With something hid in Her -- And as she vanishes, Remorse I saw no more of Her.
1052I never saw a Moor --
I never saw the Sea --
Yet know I how the Heather looks And what a Billow be.
I never spoke with God
Nor visited in Heaven --
Yet certain am I of the spot As if the Checks were given --
It was a quiet way --
He asked if I was his --
I made no answer of the Tongue But answer of the Eyes --
And then He bore me on
Before this mortal noise
With swiftness, as of Chariots And distance, as of Wheels. This World did drop away
As Acres from the feet
Of one that leaneth from Balloon Upon an Ether street.
The Gulf behind was not,
The Continents were new -- Eternity it was before
Eternity was due.
No Seasons were to us --
It was not Night nor Morn --
But Sunrise stopped upon the place And fastened it in Dawn.
Not to discover weakness is The Artifice of strength -
Impregnability inheres
As much through Consciousness
Of faith of others in itself
As Pyramidal Nerve
Behind the most unconscious clock What skilful Pointers move --
The Soul should always stand ajar That if the Heaven inquire
He will not be obliged to wait Or shy of troubling Her
Depart, before the Host have slid The Bolt unto the Door --
To search for the accomplished Guest, Her Visitor, no more --
There is a Zone whose even Years No Solstice interrupt --
Whose Sun constructs perpetual Noon Whose perfect Seasons wait --
Whose Summer set in Summer, till The Centuries of June
And Centuries of August cease And Consciousness -- is Noon. 1057
I had a daily Bliss
I half indifferent viewed
Till sudden I perceived it stir -- It grew as I pursued
Till when around a Height
It wasted from my sight
Increased beyond my utmost scope I learned to estimate.
Bloom -- is Result -- to meet a Flower And casually glance
Would scarcely cause one to suspect The minor Circumstance
Assisting in the Bright Affair So intricately done
Then offered as a Butterfly To the Meridian --
To pack the Bud -- oppose the Worm -- Obtain its right of Dew --
Adjust the Heat -- elude the Wind -Escape the prowling Bee
Great Nature not to disappoint Awaiting Her that Day -- To be a Flower, is profound Responsibility --
1059Sang from the Heart, Sire, Dipped my Beak in it, If the Tune drip too much Have a tint too Red
Pardon the Cochineal -Suffer the Vermillion -- Death is the Wealth Of the Poorest Bird.
Bear with the Ballad -- Awkward -- faltering -- Death twists the strings -'Twasn't my blame --
Pause in your Liturgies -Wait your Chorals -- While I repeat your
Hallowed name --
Air has no Residence, no Neighbor, No Ear, no Door,
No Apprehension of Another Oh, Happy Air!
Ethereal Guest at e'en an Outcast's Pillow -- Essential Host, in Life's faint, wailing Inn, Later than Light thy Consciousness accost me Till it depart, persuading Mine --
1061Three Weeks passed since I had seen Her -- Some Disease had vext
'Twas with Text and Village Singing
I beheld Her next
And a Company -- our pleasure To discourse alone --
Gracious now to me as any -- Gracious unto none --
Borne without dissent of Either To the Parish night --
Of the Separated Parties Which be out of sight?
He scanned it -- staggered -- Dropped the Loop
To Past or Period --
Caught helpless at a sense as if His Mind were going blind --
Groped up, to see if God was there -- Groped backward at Himself
Caressed a Trigger absently
And wandered out of Life.
Ashes denote that Fire was -- Revere the Grayest Pile
For the Departed Creature's sake That hovered there awhile --
Fire exists the first in light And then consolidates
Only the Chemist can disclose Into what Carbonates.
To help our Bleaker Parts Salubrious Hours are given Which if they do not fir for Earth Drill silently for Heaven -- 1065
Let down the Bars, Oh Death -- The tired Flocks come in
Whose bleating ceases to repeat Whose wandering is done --
Thine is the stillest night
Thine the securest Fold
Too near Thou art for seeking Thee Too tender, to be told.
Fame's Boys and Girls, who never die And are too seldom born --
1067
Except the smaller size
No lives are round --
These -- hurry to a sphere And show and end --
The larger -- slower grow And later hang --
The Summers of Hesperides Are long.
Further in Summer than the Birds Pathetic from the Grass
A minor Nation celebrates
Its unobtrusive Mass.
No Ordinance be seen So gradual the Grace
A pensive Custom it becomes Enlarging Loneliness.
Antiquest felt at Noon When August burning low Arise this spectral Canticle Repose to typify
Remit as yet no Grace No Furrow on the Glow Yet a Druidic Difference Enhances Nature now
1069Paradise is of the option. Whosoever will
Own in Eden notwithstanding Adam and Repeal.
To undertake is to achieve Be Undertaking blent
With fortitude of obstacle And toward encouragement
That fine Suspicion, Natures must Permitted to revere
Departed Standards and the few Criterion Sources here
Perception of an object costs Precise the Object's loss -- Perception in itself a Gain Replying to its Price --
The Object Absolute -- is nought -Perception sets it fair
And then upbraids a Perfectness That situates so far --
Title divine -- is mine!
The Wife -- without the Sign!
Acute Degree -- conferred on me -- Empress of Calvary!
Royal -- all but the Crown!
Betrothed -- without the swoon
God sends us Women --
When you -- hold -- Garnet to Garnet -- Gold -- to Gold --
Born -- Bridalled -- Shrouded --
In a Day --
Tri Victory
"My Husband" -- women say --
Stroking the Melody --
Is this -- the way?
Experiment to me Is every one I meet If it contain a Kernel? The Figure of a Nut
Presents upon a Tree
Equally plausibly,
But Meat within, is requisite To Squirrels, and to Me.
Count not that far that can be had, Though sunset lie between -- Nor that adjacent, that beside, Is further than the sun.
1075The Sky is low -- the Clouds are mean. A Travelling Flake of Snow
Across a Barn or through a Rut Debates if it will go --
A Narrow Wind complains all Day How some one treated him
Nature, like Us is sometimes caught Without her Diadem.
Just Once! Oh least Request! Could Adamant refuse
So small a Grace
So scanty put,
Such agonizing terms?
Would not a God of Flint
Be conscious of a sigh
As down His Heaven dropt remote "Just Once" Sweet Deity?
These are the Signs to Nature's Inns -- Her invitation broad
To Whosoever famishing
To taste her mystic Bread --
These are the rites of Nature's House -- The Hospitality
That opens with an equal width
To Beggar and to Bee
For Sureties of her staunch Estate Her undecaying Cheer
The Purple in the East is set And in the North, the Star --
The Bustle in a House The Morning after Death Is solemnest of industries Enacted upon Earth --
The Sweeping up the Heart And putting Love away
We shall not want to use again Until Eternity.
The Sun went down -- no Man looked on -- The Earth and I, alone,
Were present at the Majesty --
He triumphed, and went on --
The Sun went up -- no Man looked on -- The Earth and I and One
A nameless Bird -- a Stranger
Were Witness for the Crown --
When they come back -- if Blossoms do -- I always feel a doubt
If Blossoms can be born again
When once the Art is out --
When they begin, if Robins may, I always had a fear
I did not tell, it was their last Experiment Last Year,
When it is May, if May return, Had nobody a pang
Lest in a Face so beautiful He might not look again?
If I am there -- One does not know What Party -- One may be
Tomorrow, but if I am there
I take back all I say --
Superiority to Fate
Is difficult to gain
'Tis not conferred of Any But possible to earn
A pittance at a time
Until to Her surprise
The Soul with strict economy Subsist till Paradise.
Revolution is the Pod
Systems rattle from
When the Winds of Will are stirred Excellent is Bloom
But except its Russet Base Every Summer be
The Entomber of itself, So of Liberty --
Left inactive on the Stalk All its Purple fled
Revolution shakes it for Test if it be dead.
We learn it in Retreating How vast an one
Was recently among us -- A Perished Sun
Endear in the departure How doubly more
Than all the Golden presence It was -- before --
At Half past Three, a single Bird Unto a silent Sky
Propounded but a single term Of cautious melody.
At Half past Four, Experiment Had subjugated test
And lo, Her silver Principle Supplanted all the rest.
At Half past Seven, Element
Nor Implement, be seen --
And Place was where the Presence was Circumference between.
If Nature smiles -- the Mother must I'm sure, at many a whim
Of Her eccentric Family --
Is She so much to blame?
What Twigs We held by --
Oh the View
When Life's swift River striven through We pause before a further plunge To take Momentum --
As the Fringe
Upon a former Garment shows The Garment cast,
Our Props disclose
So scant, so eminently small Of Might to help, so pitiful
To sink, if We had labored, fond The diligence were not more blind
How scant, by everlasting Light
The Discs that satisfied Our Sight -- How dimmer than a Saturn's Bar
The Things esteemed, for Things that are!
We miss a Kinsman more When warranted to see
Than when withheld of Oceans From possibility
A Furlong than a League
Inflicts a pricklier pain,
Till We, who smiled at Pyrenees -- Of Parishes, complain.
Ended, ere it begun --
The Title was scarcely told
When the Preface perished from Consciousness The Story, unrevealed --
Had it been mine, to print! Had it been yours, to read! That it was not Our privilege The interdict of God --
Myself can read the Telegrams A Letter chief to me
The Stock's advance and Retrograde And what the Markets say
The Weather -- how the Rains In Counties have begun. 'Tis News as null as nothing, But sweeter so -- than none.
1090I am afraid to own a Body -- I am afraid to own a Soul -- Profound -- precarious Property -- Possession, not optional --
Double Estate -- entailed at pleasure Upon an unsuspecting Heir -- Duke in a moment of Deathlessness And God, for a Frontier.
1091The Well upon the Brook
Were foolish to depend -
Let Brooks -- renew of Brooks -- But Wells -- of failless Ground! It was not Saint -- it was too large -Nor Snow -- it was too small -- It only held itself aloof
Like something spiritual --
Because 'twas Riches I could own, Myself had earned it -- Me,
I knew the Dollars by their names -- It feels like Poverty
An Earldom out of sight to hold, An Income in the Air,
Possession -- has a sweeter chink Unto a Miser's Ear --
Themself are all I have --
Myself a freckled -- be -
I thought you'd choose a Velvet Cheek Or one of Ivory --
Would you -- instead of Me?
To Whom the Mornings stand for Nights, What must the Midnights -- be!
1096
These Strangers, in a foreign World, Protection asked of me --
Befriend them, lest Yourself in Heaven Be found a Refugee --
Dew -- is the Freshet in the Grass -- 'Tis many a tiny Mill
Turns unperceived beneath our feet And Artisan lies still --
We spy the Forests and the Hills The Tents to Nature's Show Mistake the Outside for the in And mention what we saw.
Could Commentators on the Sign Of Nature's Caravan
Obtain "Admission" as a Child Some Wednesday Afternoon.
Of the Heart that goes in, and closes the Door Shall the Playfellow Heart complain
Though the Ring is unwhole, and the Company broke Can never be fitted again?
My Cocoon tightens -- Colors tease -I'm feeling for the Air --
A dim capacity for Wings
Demeans the Dress I wear --
A power of Butterfly must be -- The Aptitude to fly
Meadows of Majesty implies And easy Sweeps of Sky --
So I must baffle at the Hint
And cipher at the Sign
And make much blunder, if at least I take the clue divine --