From his slim Palace in the Dust He relegates the Realm,
More loyal for the exody
That has befallen him.
I cannot want it more --
I cannot want it less --
My Human Nature's fullest force Expends itself on this.
And yet it nothing is
To him who easy owns -- Is Worth itself or Distance He fathoms who obtains.
I think that the Root of the Wind is Water -- It would not sound so deep
Were it a Firmamental Product --
Airs no Oceans keep -
Mediterranean intonations --
To a Current's Ear --
There is a maritime conviction
In the Atmosphere --
Not One by Heaven defrauded stay -- Although he seem to steal
He restitutes in some sweet way Secreted in his will --
1304
Not with a Club, the Heart is broken Nor with a Stone --
A Whip so small you could not see it I've known
To lash the Magic Creature Till it fell,
Yet that Whip's Name Too noble then to tell.
Magnanimous as Bird By Boy descried -- Singing unto the Stone Of which it died --
Shame need not crouch In such an Earth as Ours -- Shame -- stand erect -The Universe is yours.
1305Recollect the Face of me When in thy Felicity,
Due in Paradise today Guest of mine assuredly --
Other Courtesies have been -- Other Courtesy may be -- We commend ourselves to thee Paragon of Chivalry.
1306Surprise is like a thrilling -- pungent -- Upon a tasteless meat
Alone -- too acrid -- but combined An edible Delight.
That short -- potential stir
That each can make but once -- That Bustle so illustrious
'Tis almost Consequence --
Is the eclat of Death --
Oh, thou unknown Renown That not a Beggar would accept Had he the power to spurn --
The Day she goes
Or Day she stays
Are equally supreme --
Existence has a stated width Departed, or at Home --
The Infinite a sudden Guest
Has been assumed to be --
But how can that stupendous come Which never went away?
The Notice that is called the Spring Is but a month from here --
Put up my Heart thy Hoary work And take a Rosy Chair.
Not any House the Flowers keep -The Birds enamor Care --
Our salary the longest Day
Is nothing but a Bier.
This dirty -- little -- Heart Is freely mine.
I won it with a Bun -- A Freckled shrine --
But eligibly fair
To him who sees
The Visage of the Soul And not the knees.
To break so vast a Heart
Required a Blow as vast --
No Zephyr felled this Cedar straight -- 'Twas undeserved Blast --
Warm in her Hand these accents lie While faithful and afar
The Grace so awkward for her sake Its fond subjection wear --
When a Lover is a Beggar Abject is his Knee --
When a Lover is an Owner Different is he --
What he begged is then the Beggar -- Oh disparity --
Bread of Heaven resents bestowal Like an obloquy --
Which is the best -- the Moon or the Crescent? Neither -- said the Moon --
That is best which is not -- Achieve it -- You efface the Sheen.
Not of detention is Fruition -- Shudder to attain.
Transport's decomposition follows -He is Prism born.
Winter is good -- his Hoar Delights Italic flavor yield
To Intellects inebriate
With Summer, or the World --
Generic as a Quarry
And hearty -- as a Rose -- Invited with Asperity
But welcome when he goes.
Abraham to kill him -- Was distinctly told -- Isaac was an Urchin -- Abraham was old --
Not a hesitation -- Abraham complied -- Flattered by Obeisance Tyranny demurred --
Isaac -- to his children Lived to tell the tale -- Moral -- with a Mastiff Manners may prevail.
1318Frigid and sweet Her parting Face -Frigid and fleet my Feet --
Alien and vain whatever Clime Acrid whatever Fate.
Given to me without the Suit Riches and Name and Realm -- Who was She to withhold from me Penury and Home?
1319How News must feel when travelling If News have any Heart
Alighting at the Dwelling
'Twill enter like a Dart!
What News must think when pondering If News have any Thought
Concerning the stupendousness Of its perceiveless freight!
What News will do when every Man Shall comprehend as one
And not in all the Universe
A thing to tell remain?
1320 Dear March -- Come in -- How glad I am --
I hoped for you before --
Put down your Hat --
You must have walked --
How out of Breath you are --
Dear March, Come right up the stairs with me -- I have so much to tell -
I got your Letter, and the Birds --
The Maples never knew that you were coming -- till I called I declare -- how Red their Faces grew --
But March, forgive me -- and
All those Hills you left for me to Hue --
There was no Purple suitable --
You took it all with you --
Who knocks? That April. Lock the Door --
I will not be pursued --
He stayed away a Year to call When I am occupied -
But trifles look so trivial
As soon as you have come
1321
Elizabeth told Essex
That she could not forgive The clemency of Deity
However -- might survive -- That secondary succor
We trust that she partook When suing -- like her Essex For a reprieving Look -- 1322
Floss won't save you from an Abyss But a Rope will --
Notwithstanding a Rope for a Souvenir Is not beautiful --
But I tell you every step is a Trough -And every stop a Well -
Now will you have the Rope or the Floss? Prices reasonable --
I never hear that one is dead Without the chance of Life Afresh annihilating me
That mightiest Belief,
Too mighty for the Daily mind That tilling its abyss,
Had Madness, had it once or twice The yawning Consciousness,
Beliefs are Bandaged, like the Tongue When Terror were it told
In any Tone commensurate
Would strike us instant Dead
I do not know the man so bold He dare in lonely Place
That awful stranger Consciousness Deliberately face --
I send you a decrepit flower That nature sent to me
At parting -- she was going south And I designed to stay --
Her motive for the souvenir If sentiment for me
Or circumstances prudential Withheld invincibly --
Knock with tremor --
These are Caesars --
Should they be at Home Flee as if you trod unthinking On the Foot of Doom --
These receded to accostal
Centuries ago --
Should they rend you with "How are you" What have you to show?
Our little secrets slink away -- Beside God's shall not tell -- He kept his word a Trillion years And might we not as well --
But for the niggardly delight To make each other stare
Is there no sweet beneath the sun With this that may compare --
The Symptom of the Gale -- The Second of Dismay --
Between its Rumor and its Face -- Is almost Revelry --
The Houses firmer root --
The Heavens cannot be found -- The Upper Surfaces of things Take covert in the Ground --
The Mem'ry of the Sun
Not Any can recall --
Although by Nature's sterling Watch So scant an interval --
And when the Noise is caught And Nature looks around --
"We dreamed it"? She interrogates -- "Good Morning" -- We propound?
The vastest earthly Day Is shrunken small
By one Defaulting Face Behind a Pall --
Whether they have forgotten Or are forgetting now
Or never remembered -- Safer not to know --
Miseries of conjecture Are a softer woe
Than a Fact of Iron Hardened with I know -
Without a smile -- Without a Throe A Summer's soft Assemblies go To their entrancing end
Unknown -- for all the times we met -- Estranged, however intimate -- What a dissembling Friend --
Wonder -- is not precisely Knowing And not precisely Knowing not -- A beautiful but bleak condition He has not lived who has not felt --
Suspense -- is his maturer Sister -- Whether Adult Delight is Pain Or of itself a new misgiving -- This is the Gnat that mangles men --
1332Pink -- small -- and punctual -- Aromatic -- low --
Covert -- in April --
Candid -- in May --
Dear to the Moss --
Known to the Knoll --
Next to the Robin
In every human Soul --
Bold little Beauty
Bedecked with thee
Nature forswears
Antiquity --
A little Madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King, But God be with the Clown --
Who ponders this tremendous scene -- This whole Experiment of Green -- As if it were his own!
1334
How soft this Prison is
How sweet these sullen bars No Despot but the King of Down Invented this repose
Of Fate if this is All
Has he no added Realm A Dungeon but a Kinsman is Incarceration -- Home.
Let me not mar that perfect Dream By an Auroral stain
But so adjust my daily Night That it will come again.
Not when we know, the Power accosts -- The Garment of Surprise
Was all our timid Mother wore
At Home -- in Paradise.
Nature assigns the Sun -- That -- is Astronomy --
Nature cannot enact a Friend -- That -- is Astrology.
Upon a Lilac Sea To toss incessantly His Plush Alarm Who fleeing from the Spring The Spring avenging fling To Dooms of Balm
1338What tenements of clover Are fitting for the bee, What edifices azure
For butterflies and me -- What residences nimble Arise and evanesce
Without a rhythmic rumor Or an assaulting guess.
A Bee his burnished Carriage Drove boldly to a Rose -- Combinedly alighting --
Himself -- his Carriage was -- The Rose received his visit With frank tranquillity
Withholding not a Crescent To his Cupidity --
Their Moment consummated -- Remained for him -- to flee -- Remained for her -- of rapture But the humility.
A Rat surrendered here A brief career of Cheer And Fraud and Fear.
Of Ignominy's due Let all addicted to Beware.The most obliging Trap Its tendency to snap Cannot resist --
Temptation is the Friend Repugnantly resigned At last.
1341Unto the Whole -- how add? Has "All" a further realm -- Or Utmost an Ulterior? Oh, Subsidy of Balm!
1342"Was not" was all the Statement. The Unpretension stuns --
Perhaps -- the Comprehension -- They wore no Lexicons -
But lest our Speculation
In inanition die
Because "God took him" mention -- That was Philology --
A single Clover Plank Was all that saved a Bee A Bee I personally knew From sinking in the sky --
'Twixt Firmament aboveAnd Firmament below The Billows of Circumference Were sweeping him away --
The idly swaying Plank
Responsible to nought
A sudden Freight of Wind assumed And Bumble Bee was not --
This harrowing event
Transpiring in the Grass
Did not so much as wring from him A wandering "Alas" --
Not any more to be lacked -- Not any more to be known -- Denizen of Significance For a span so worn --
Even Nature herself
Has forgot it is there -- Sedulous of her Multitudes Notwithstanding Despair --
Of the Ones that pursued it Suing it not to go
Some have solaced the longing To accompany --
Some -- rescinded the Wrench -- Others -- Shall I say
Plated the residue of Adz
With Monotony.
An antiquated Grace
Becomes that cherished Face As well as prime
Enjoining us to part
We and our pouting Heart Good friends with time
1346
As Summer into Autumn slips
And yet we sooner say
"The Summer" than "the Autumn," lest We turn the sun away,
And almost count it an Affront The presence to concede Of one however lovely, not The one that we have loved --
So we evade the charge of Years On one attempting shy
The Circumvention of the Shaft Of Life's Declivity.
Escape is such a thankful Word I often in the Night
Consider it unto myself
No spectacle in sight
Escape -- it is the Basket
In which the Heart is caught
When down some awful Battlement The rest of Life is dropt --
'Tis not to sight the savior -- It is to be the saved --
And that is why I lay my Head Upon this trusty word --
Lift it -- with the Feathers Not alone we fly --
Launch it -- the aquatic Not the only sea -- Advocate the Azure To the lower Eyes -- He has obligation
Who has Paradise --
I'd rather recollect a setting
Than own a rising sun
Though one is beautiful forgetting -And true the other one.
Because in going is a Drama Staying cannot confer
To die divinely once a Twilight -- Than wane is easier --
Luck is not chance -- It's Toil --
Fortune's expensive smile Is earned -
The Father of the Mine Is that old-fashioned Coin We spurned --
You cannot take itself From any Human soul -- That indestructible estate Enable him to dwell -- Impregnable as Light That every man behold But take away as difficult As undiscovered Gold --
1352To his simplicity
To die -- was little Fate -If Duty live -- contented But her Confederate.
The last of Summer is Delight -- Deterred by Retrospect.
'Tis Ecstasy's revealed Review -- Enchantment's Syndicate.
To meet it -- nameless as it is -- Without celestial Mail -
Audacious as without a Knock To walk within the Veil.
The Heart is the Capital of the Mind -- The Mind is a single State --
The Heart and the Mind together make A single Continent --
One -- is the Population -- Numerous enough -- This ecstatic Nation
Seek -- it is Yourself.
1355 The Mind lives on the Heart Like any Parasite --
If that is full of Meat
The Mind is fat.
But if the Heart omit Emaciate the Wit -- The Aliment of it So absolute.
1356The Rat is the concisest Tenant. He pays no Rent.
Repudiates the Obligation -- On Schemes intent
Balking our Wit
To sound or circumvent -- Hate cannot harm
A Foe so reticent --
Neither Decree prohibit him -- Lawful as Equilibrium.
"Faithful to the end" Amended From the Heavenly Clause -- Constancy with a Proviso Constancy abhors --
"Crowns of Life" are servile Prizes To the stately Heart,
Given for the Giving, solely, No Emolument.
"Faithful to the end" Amended
From the Heavenly clause -- Lucrative indeed the offer But the Heart withdraws --
"I will give" the base Proviso -- Spare Your "Crown of Life" -- Those it fits, too fair to wear it -- Try it on Yourself --
1358The Treason of an accent Might Ecstasy transfer -- Of her effacing Fathom Is no Recoverer --
--The Treason of an Accent
Might vilify the Joy --
To breathe -- corrode the rapture Of Sanctity to be --
The long sigh of the Frog Upon a Summer's Day
Enacts intoxication
Upon the Revery --
But his receding Swell
Substantiates a Peace
That makes the Ear inordinate For corporal release --
I sued the News -- yet feared -- the News That such a Realm could be --
"The House not made with Hands" it was -- Thrown open wide to me --
The Flake the Wind exasperate More eloquently lie
Than if escorted to its Down By Arm of Chivalry.
Of their peculiar light I keep one ray
To clarify the Sight To seek them by --
Summer laid her simple Hat On its boundless Shelf -Unobserved -- a Ribbon slipt, Snatch it for yourself.
Summer laid her supple Glove In its sylvan Drawer --
Wheresoe'er, or was she -- The demand of Awe?
How know it from a Summer's Day? Its Fervors are as firm --
And nothing in the Countenance But scintillates the same --
Yet Birds examine it and flee -- And Vans without a name
Inspect the Admonition
And sunder as they came --
Take all away --
The only thing worth larceny Is left -- the Immortality --
Brother of Ingots -- Ah Peru --
Empty the Hearts that purchased you --
--
Sister of Ophir -- Ah, Peru --
Subtle the Sum
That purchase you --
Brother of Ophir
Bright Adieu,
Honor, the shortest route To you.
"Tomorrow" -- whose location The Wise deceives
Though its hallucination
Is last that leaves --
Tomorrow -- thou Retriever Of every tare --
Of Alibi art thou
Or ownest where?
1368 Love's stricken "why"
Is all that love can speak -- Built of but just a syllable The hugest hearts that break.
Trusty as the stars
Who quit their shining working Prompt as when I lit them In Genesis' new house,
Durable as dawn
Whose antiquated blossom Makes a world's suspense Perish and rejoice.
Gathered into the Earth,
And out of story --
Gathered so that strange Fame -- That lonesome Glory
That hath no omen here -- but Awe --
How fits his Umber Coat The Tailor of the Nut? Combined without a seam Like Raiment of a Dream --
Who spun the Auburn Cloth? Computed how the girth? The Chestnut aged grows In those primeval Clothes --
We know that we are wise -- Accomplished in Surprise -- Yet by this Countryman -- This nature -- how undone!
1372The Sun is one -- and on the Tare He doth as punctual call
As on the conscientious Flower And estimates them all -
The worthlessness of Earthly things The Ditty is that Nature Sings -- And then -- enforces their delight Till Synods are inordinate --
1374A Saucer holds a Cup In sordid human Life
But in a Squirrel's estimate A Saucer hold a Loaf.
A Table of a Tree
Demands the little King
And every Breeze that run along His Dining Room do swing.
His Cutlery -- he keeps
Within his Russer Lips --
To see it flashing when he dines Do Birmingham eclipse -
Convicted -- could we be Of our Minutiae
The smallest Citizen that flies Is heartier than we --
1375
Death warrants are supposed to be An enginery of equity
A merciful mistake
A pencil in an Idol's Hand
A Devotee has oft consigned To Crucifix or Block
Dreams are the subtle Dower That make us rich an Hour -- Then fling us poor
Out of the purple Door
Into the Precinct raw
Possessed before --
Forbidden Fruit a flavor has That lawful Orchards mocks -- How luscious lies within the Pod The Pea that Duty locks --
1378His Heart was darker than the starless night For that there is a morn
But in this black Receptacle
Can be no Bode of Dawn
His Mansion in the Pool The Frog forsakes -- He rises on a Log
And statements makes -- His Auditors two Worlds Deducting me --
The Orator of April
Is hoarse Today --
His Mittens at his Feet No Hand hath he --
His eloquence a Bubble As Fame should be --
Applaud him to discover To your chagrin
Demosthenes has vanished In Waters Green --
How much the present moment means To those who've nothing more -- The Fop -- the Carp -- the Atheist -Stake an entire store
Upon a Moment's shallow Rim
While their commuted Feet
The Torrents of Eternity
Do all but inundate --
I suppose the time will come Aid it in the coming
When the Bird will crowd the Tree And the Bee be booming.
I suppose the time will come Hinder it a little
When the Corn in Silk will dress And in Chintz the Apple
I believe the Day will be When the Jay will giggle At his new white House the Earth That, too, halt a little --
1382In many and reportless places
We feel a Joy --
Reportless, also, but sincere as Nature Or Deity --
It comes, without a consternation -- Dissolves -- the same --
But leaves a sumptuous Destitution -Without a Name --
Profane it by a search -- we cannot It has no home --
Nor we who having once inhaled it -Thereafter roam.
Long Years apart -- can make no Breach a second cannot fill -- The absence of the Witch does not Invalidate the spell --
The embers of a Thousand Years Uncovered by the Hand
That fondled them when they were Fire Will stir and understand --
Praise it -- 'tis dead --
It cannot glow --
Warm this inclement Ear With the encomium it earned Since it was gathered here -- Invest this alabaster Zest In the Delights of Dust -Remitted -- since it flitted it In recusance august.
"Secrets" is a daily word
Yet does not exist --
Muffled -- it remits surmise --
Murmured -- it has ceased --
Dungeoned in the Human Breast Doubtless secrets lie -
But that Grate inviolate -
Goes nor comes away
Nothing with a Tongue or Ear -- Secrets stapled there
Will emerge but once -- and dumb -- To the Sepulchre --
Summer -- we all have seen -- A few of us -- believed -- A few -- the more aspiring Unquestionably loved --
But Summer does not care -- She goes her spacious way As eligible as the moon To our Temerity --
The Doom to be adored -- The Affluence conferred -- Unknown as to an Ecstasy The Embryo endowed -- 1387
The Butterfly's Numidian Gown With spots of Burnish roasted on Is proof against the Sun
Yet prone to shut its spotted Fan And panting on a Clover lean As if it were undone --
Those cattle smaller than a Bee That herd upon the eye --
Whose tillage is the passing Crumb -- Those Cattle are the Fly --
Of Barns for Winter -- blameless -- Extemporaneous stalls
They found to our objection --
On eligible walls --
Reserving the presumption
To suddenly descend
And gallop on the Furniture --
Or odiouser offend --
Of their peculiar calling
Unqualified to judge
To Nature we remand them
To justify or scourge --
Touch lightly Nature's sweet Guitar Unless thou know'st the Tune Or every Bird will point at thee Because a Bard too soon --
1390These held their Wick above the West -- Till when the Red declined --
Or how the Amber aided it --
Defied to be defined --
Then waned without disparagement In a dissembling Hue
That would not let the Eye decide Did it abide or no --
They might not need me -- yet they might -- I'll let my Heart be just in sight --
A smile so small as mine might be
Precisely their necessity --
Hope is a strange invention -- A Patent of the Heart --
In unremitting action
Yet never wearing out -
Of this electric Adjunct Not anything is known But its unique momentum Embellish all we own --
1393Lay this Laurel on the One
Too intrinsic for Renown --
Laurel -- veil your deathless tree -- Him you chasten, that is He!
1394 Whose Pink career may have a close Portentous as our own, who knows? To imitate these Neighbors fleet In awe and innocence, were meet.
1395After all Birds have been investigated and laid aside -- Nature imparts the little Blue-Bird -- assured Her conscientious Voice will soar unmoved
Above ostensible Vicissitude.
First at the March -- competing with the Wind -Her panting note exalts us -- like a friend -- Last to adhere when Summer cleaves away -- Elegy of Integrity.
1396She laid her docile Crescent down And this confiding Stone
Still states to Dates that have forgot The News that she is gone --
So constant to its stolid trust, The Shaft that never knew -- It shames the Constancy that fled Before its emblem flew --
1397It sounded as if the Streets were running And then -- the Streets stood still --
Eclipse -- was all we could see at the Window And Awe -- was all we could feel.
By and by -- the boldest stole out of his Covert To see if Time was there --
Nature was in an Opal Apron, Mixing fresher Air.
I have no Life but this -To lead it here --