It came his turn to beg -- The begging for the life
Is different from another Alms 'Tis Penury in Chief --
I scanned his narrow realm I gave him leave to live
Lest Gratitude revive the snake Though smuggled his reprieve
Its little Ether Hood Doth sit upon its Head -The millinery supple Of the sagacious God -
Till when it slip away A nothing at a time -- And Dandelion's Drama Expires in a stem.
1502I saw the wind within her I knew it blew for me -- But she must buy my shelter I asked Humility
1503 More than the Grave is closed to me -- The Grave and that Eternity
To which the Grave adheres --
I cling to nowhere till I fall --
The Crash of nothing, yet of all -- How similar appears --
Of whom so dear
The name to hear
Illumines with a Glow As intimate -- as fugitive As Sunset on the snow --
She could not live upon the Past The Present did not know her And so she sought this sweet at last And nature gently owned her The mother that has not a knell for either Duke or Robin
1506Summer is shorter than any one -- Life is shorter than Summer -- Seventy Years is spent as quick As an only Dollar --
Sorrow -- now -- is polite -- and stays -- See how well we spurn him --
Equally to abhor Delight --
Equally retain him --
The Pile of Years is not so high As when you came before
But it is rising every Day
From recollection's Floor
And while by standing on my Heart I still can reach the top
Efface the mountain with your face And catch me ere I drop
You cannot make Remembrance grow When it has lost its Root --
The tightening the Soil around
And setting it upright
Deceives perhaps the Universe But not retrieves the Plant --
Real Memory, like Cedar Feet
Is shod with Adamant --
Nor can you cut Remembrance down When it shall once have grown -- Its Iron Buds will sprout anew
However overthrown --
Mine Enemy is growing old -- I have at last Revenge --
The Palate of the Hate departs -- If any would avenge
Let him be quick -- the Viand flits -- It is a faded Meat --
Anger as soon as fed is dead -- 'Tis starving makes it fat --
How happy is the little Stone That rambles in the Road alone, And doesn't care about Careers And Exigencies never fears -- Whose Coat of elemental Brown A passing Universe put on, And independent as the Sun Associates or glows alone, Fulfilling absolute Decree
In casual simplicity --
My country need not change her gown, Her triple suit as sweet
As when 'twas cut at Lexington, And first pronounced "a fit."
Great Britain disapproves, "the stars"; Disparagement discreet, --
There's something in their attitude That taunts her bayonet.
All things swept sole away This -- is immensity --
1513
"Go travelling with us!" Her travels daily be By routes of ecstasy To Evening's Sea -- An Antiquated Tree
Is cherished of the Crow
Because that Junior Foliage is disrespectful now To venerable Birds
Whose Corporation Coat
Would decorate Oblivion's
Remotest Consulate.
The Things that never can come back, are several -- Childhood -- some forms of Hope -- the Dead --
Though Joys -- like Men -- may sometimes make a Journey -- And still abide --
We do not mourn for Traveler, or Sailor,
Their Routes are fair -
But think enlarged of all that they will tell us
Returning here --
"Here!" There are typic "Heres" --
Foretold Locations --
The Spirit does not stand --
Himself -- at whatsoever Fathom
His Native Land --
No Autumn's intercepting Chill Appalls this Tropic Breast -- But African Exuberance
And Asiatic rest.
How much of Source escapes with thee -- How chief thy sessions be --
For thou hast borne a universe Entirely away.
Not seeing, still we know -- Not knowing, guess --
Not guessing, smile and hide And half caress --
And quake -- and turn away, Seraphic fear --
Is Eden's innuendo
"If you dare"?
The Dandelion's pallid tube Astonishes the Grass,
And Winter instantly becomes An infinite Alas --
The tube uplifts a signal Bud And then a shouting Flower, -- The Proclamation of the Suns That sepulture is o'er.
1520The stem of a departed Flower Has still a silent rank.
The Bearer from an Emerald Court Of a Despatch of Pink.
The Butterfly upon the Sky, That doesn't know its Name And hasn't any tax to pay And hasn't any Home
Is just as high as you and I, And higher, I believe,
So soar away and never sigh And that's the way to grieve --
His little Hearse like Figure Unto itself a Dirge
To a delusive Lilac
The vanity divulge
Of Industry and Morals And every righteous thing For the divine Perdition Of Idleness and Spring --
We never know we go when we are going -- We jest and shut the Door --
Fate -- following -- behind us bolts it -- And we accost no more --
A faded Boy -- in sallow Clothes Who drove a lonesome Cow To pastures of Oblivion --
A statesman's Embryo --
The Boys that whistled are extinct -- The Cows that fed and thanked Remanded to a Ballad's Barn Or Clover's Retrospect --
He lived the Life of Ambush
And went the way of Dusk
And now against his subtle name There stands an Asterisk
As confident of him as we --
Impregnable we are --
The whole of Immortality intrenched Within a star --
His oriental heresies
Exhilarate the Bee,
And filling all the Earth and Air With gay apostasy
Fatigued at last, a Clover plain Allures his jaded eye
That lowly Breast where Butterflies Have felt it meet to die --
Oh give it Motion -- deck it sweet With Artery and Vein --
Upon its fastened Lips lay words -- Affiance it again
To that Pink stranger we call Dust -Acquainted more with that
Than with this horizontal one That will not lift its Hat --
1528 The Moon upon her fluent Route Defiant of a Road --
The Star's Etruscan Argument Substantiate a God --
If Aims impel these Astral Ones The ones allowed to know
Know that which makes them as forgot As Dawn forgets them -- now --
'Tis Seasons since the Dimpled War In which we each were Conqueror And each of us were slain
And Centuries 'twill be and more Another Massacre before
So modest and so vain --
Without a Formula we fought
Each was to each the Pink Redoubt --
A Pang is more conspicuous in Spring In contrast with the things that sing Not Birds entirely -- but Minds -- Minute Effulgencies and Winds -- When what they sung for is undone Who cares about a Blue Bird's Tune -- Why, Resurrection had to wait
Till they had moved a Stone --
Above Oblivion's Tide there is a Pier
And an effaceless "Few" are lifted there -- Nay -- lift themselves -- Fame has no Arms -- And but one smile -- that meagres Balms -- From all the Jails the Boys and Girls Ecstatically leap --
Beloved only Afternoon
That Prison doesn't keep
They storm the Earth and stun the Air, A Mob of solid Bliss --
Alas -- that Frowns should lie in wait For such a Foe as this -
On that specific Pillow
Our projects flit away --
The Night's tremendous Morrow And whether sleep will stay Or usher us -- a stranger -- To situations new
The effort to comprise it
Is all the soul can do.
Society for me my misery Since Gift of Thee --
1535
The Life that tied too tight escapes Will ever after run
With a prudential look behind
And spectres of the Rein --
The Horse that scents the living Grass And sees the Pastures smile
Will be retaken with a shot If he is caught at all --
There comes a warning like a spy A shorter breath of Day
A stealing that is not a stealth And Summers are away --
Candor -- my tepid friend --
Come not to play with me --
The Myrrhs, and Mochas, of the Mind Are its iniquity --
Follow wise Orion
Till you waste your Eye -- Dazzlingly decamping He is just as high --
Now I lay thee down to Sleep -- I pray the Lord thy Dust to keep -- And if thou live before thou wake -- I pray the Lord thy Soul to make --
1540As imperceptibly as Grief The Summer lapsed away -- Too imperceptible at last To seem like Perfidy -- A Quietness distilled
As Twilight long begun,
Or Nature spending with herself Sequestered Afternoon --
The Dusk drew earlier in --
The Morning foreign shone -- A courteous, yet harrowing Grace, As Guest, that would be gone -- And thus, without a Wing
Or service of a Keel
Our Summer made her light escape Into the Beautiful.
No matter where the Saints abide, They make their Circuit fair
Behold how great a Firmament Accompanies a Star.
Come show thy Durham Breast To her who loves thee best, Delicious Robin --
And if it be not me
At least within my Tree
Do the avowing --
Thy Nuptial so minute
Perhaps is more astute
Than vaster suing --
For so to soar away
Is our propensity
The Day ensuing --
1543 Obtaining but our own Extent
In whatsoever Realm --
'Twas Christ's own personal Expanse That bore him from the Tomb --
Who has not found the Heaven -- below -- Will fail of it above --
For Angels rent the House next ours, Wherever we remove --
The Bible is an antique Volume -- Written by faded men
At the suggestion of Holy Spectres -- Subjects -- Bethlehem --
Eden -- the ancient Homestead -- Satan -- the Brigadier --
Judas -- the Great Defaulter --
David -- the Troubador --
Sin -- a distinguished Precipice
Others must resist --
Boys that "believe" are very lonesome -- Other Boys are "lost" -
Had but the Tale a warbling Teller -All the Boys would come --
Orpheus' Sermon captivated --
It did not condemn --
Sweet Pirate of the heart, Not Pirate of the Sea, What wrecketh thee? Some spice's Mutiny -- Some Attar's perfidy? Confide in me.
1547Hope is a subtle Glutton -- He feeds upon the Fair -And yet -- inspected closely What Abstinence is there --
His is the Halcyon Table -- That never seats but One -- And whatsoever is consumed The same amount remain --
1548Meeting by Accident, We hovered by design -- As often as a Century An error so divine
Is ratified by Destiny, But Destiny is old
And economical of Bliss As Midas is of Gold --
My Wars are laid away in Books -- I have one Battle more --
A Foe whom I have never seen
But oft has scanned me o'er --
And hesitated me between
And others at my side,
But chose the best -- Neglecting me -- till All the rest, have died --
How sweet if I am not forgot
By Chums that passed away --
Since Playmates at threescore and ten Are such a scarcity --
The pattern of the sun
Can fit but him alone
For sheen must have a Disk To be a sun --
Those -- dying then,
Knew where they went --
They went to God's Right Hand -- That Hand is amputated now And God cannot be found --
The abdication of Belief Makes the Behavior small -- Better an ignis fatuus
Than no illume at all --
Within thy Grave!
Oh no, but on some other flight -- Thou only camest to mankind To rend it with Good night --
Bliss is the plaything of the child -- The secret of the man
The sacred stealth of Boy and Girl Rebuke it if we can
"Go tell it" -- What a Message -- To whom -- is specified -
Not murmur -- not endearment -- But simply -- we -- obeyed -- Obeyed -- a Lure -- a Longing? Oh Nature -- none of this --
To Law -- said sweet Thermopylae I give my dying Kiss --
I groped for him before I knew
With solemn nameless need
All other bounty sudden chaff
For this foreshadowed Food
Which others taste and spurn and sneer -- Though I within suppose
That consecrated it could be
The only Food that grows
Image of Light, Adieu -- Thanks for the interview -- So long -- so short --
Preceptor of the whole -- Coeval Cardinal --
Impart -- Depart --
Lives he in any other world My faith cannot reply
Before it was imperative 'Twas all distinct to me -- Of Death I try to think like this -- The Well in which they lay us Is but the Likeness of the Brook That menaced not to slay us, But to invite by that Dismay Which is the Zest of sweetness To the same Flower Hesperian, Decoying but to greet us --
I do remember when a Child
With bolder Playmates straying To where a Brook that seemed a Sea Withheld us by its roaring
From just the Purple Flower beyond Until constrained to clutch it
If Doom itself were the result,
The boldest leaped, and clutched it -
Tried always and Condemned by thee Permit me this reprieve
That dying I may earn the look For which I cease to live --
To be forgot by thee
Surpasses Memory
Of other minds
The Heart cannot forget Unless it contemplate What it declines
I was regarded then
Raised from oblivion
A single time
To be remembered what -- Worthy to be forgot Is my renown
No Brigadier throughout the Year So civic as the Jay --
A Neighbor and a Warrior too
With shrill felicity
Pursuing Winds that censure us A February Day,
The Brother of the Universe
Was never blown away --
The Snow and he are intimate -- I've often seem them play
When Heaven looked upon us all With such severity
I felt apology were due
To an insulted sky
Whose pompous frown was Nutriment To their Temerity --
The Pillow of this daring Head
Is pungent Evergreens --
His Larder -- terse and Militant -- Unknown -- refreshing things -- His Character -- a Tonic --
His future -- a Dispute --
Unfair an Immortality
That leaves this Neighbor out --
Her Losses make our Gains ashamed -- She bore Life's empty Pack
As gallantly as if the East
Were swinging at her Back.
Life's empty Pack is heaviest,
As every Porter knows --
In vain to punish Honey --
It only sweeter grows.
By homely gift and hindered Words The human heart is told
Of Nothing --
"Nothing" is the force
That renovates the World --
Pass to they Rendezvous of Light, Pangless except for us -
Who slowly for the Mystery
Which thou hast leaped across!
Some Arrows slay but whom they strike -- But this slew all but him --
Who so appareled his Escape --
Too trackless for a Tomb --
Climbing to reach the costly Hearts To which he gave the worth, He broke them, fearing punishment He ran away from Earth --
1567The Heart has many Doors -- I can but knock --
For any sweet "Come in" Impelled to hark --
Not saddened by repulse, Repast to me
That somewhere, there exists, Supremacy --
To see her is a Picture -
To hear her is a Tune -
To know her an Intemperance As innocent as June --
To know her not -- Affliction -- To own her for a Friend
A warmth as near as if the Sun Were shining in your Hand.
The Clock strikes one that just struck two -- Some schism in the Sum --
A Vagabond for Genesis
Has wrecked the Pendulum --
Forever honored by the Tree Whose Apple Winterworn
Enticed to Breakfast from the Sky Two Gabriels Yestermorn.
They registered in Nature's Book As Robins -- Sire and Son -- But Angels have that modest way To screen them from Renown. How slow the Wind -- how slow the sea --
how late their Fathers be!
We wear our sober Dresses when we die, But Summer, frilled as for a Holiday Adjourns her sigh --
1573To the bright east she flies, Brothers of Paradise
Remit her home,
Without a change of wings, Or Love's convenient things, Enticed to come.
Fashioning what she is,
Fathoming what she was, We deem we dream --
And that dissolves the days Through which existence strays Homeless at home.
No ladder needs the bird but skies To situate its wings,
Nor any leader's grim baton Arraigns it as it sings.
The implements of bliss are few -- As Jesus says of Him,
"Come unto me" the moiety That wafts the cherubim.
The Bat is dun, with wrinkled Wings -Like fallow Article --
And not a song pervade his Lips -- Or none perceptible.
His small Umbrella quaintly halved Describing in the Air
An Arc alike inscrutable
Elate Philosopher.
Deputed from what Firmament -- Of what Astute Abode --
Empowered with what Malignity Auspiciously withheld --
To his adroit Creator
Acribe no less the praise -- Beneficent, believe me, His Eccentricities --
The Spirit lasts -- but in what mode -- Below, the Body speaks,
But as the Spirit furnishes --
Apart, it never talks --
The Music in the Violin
Does not emerge alone
But Arm in Arm with Touch, yet Touch Alone -- is not a Tune --
The Spirit lurks within the Flesh
Like Tides within the Sea
That make the Water live, estranged What would the Either be?
Does that know -- now -- or does it cease -- That which to this is done,
Resuming at a mutual date
With every future one?
Instinct pursues the Adamant,
Exacting this Reply --
Adversity if it may be, or
Wild Prosperity,
The Rumor's Gate was shut so tight Before my Mind was sown,
Not even a Prognostic's Push Could make a Dent thereon --
Morning is due to all -- To some -- the Night -- To an imperial few -- The Auroral light.
1578Blossoms will run away, Cakes reign but a Day, But Memory like Melody Is pink Eternally.
1579It would not know if it were spurned, This gallant little flower -
How therefore safe to be a flower If one would tamper there.
To enter, it would not aspire -- But may it not despair
That it is not a Cavalier,
To dare and perish there? We shun it ere it comes, Afraid of Joy,
Then sue it to delay
And lest it fly,
Beguile it more and more -- May not this be
Old Suitor Heaven,
Like our dismay at thee?
The farthest Thunder that I heard Was nearer than the Sky
And rumbles still, though torrid Noons Have lain their missiles by --
The Lightning that preceded it
Struck no one but myself --
But I would not exchange the Bolt For all the rest of Life -
Indebtedness to Oxygen
The Happy may repay,
But not the obligation
To Electricity --
It founds the Homes and decks the Days And every clamor bright
Is but the gleam concomitant
Of that waylaying Light --
The Thought is quiet as a Flake -- A Crash without a Sound,
How Life's reverberation
Its Explanation found --
Where Roses would not dare to go, What Heart would risk the way -- And so I send my Crimson Scouts To sound the Enemy --
1583
Witchcraft was hung, in History, But History and I
Find all the Witchcraft that we need Around us, every Day --
Expanse cannot be lost --
Not Joy, but a Decree
Is Deity --
His Scene, Infinity --
Whose rumor's Gate was shut so tight Before my Beam was sown,
Not even a Prognostic's push
Could make a Dent thereon --
The World that thou hast opened Shuts for thee,
But not alone,
We all have followed thee -- Escape more slowly
To thy Tracts of Sheen --
The Tent is listening,
But the Troops are gone!
The Bird her punctual music brings And lays it in its place -
Its place is in the Human Heart And in the Heavenly Grace -- What respite from her thrilling toil Did Beauty ever take --
But Work might be electric Rest To those that Magic make -- To her derided Home
A Weed of Summer came -- She did not know her station low Nor Ignominy's Name --
Bestowed a summer long
Upon a frameless flower --
Then swept as lightly from disdain As Lady from her Bower --
Of Bliss the Codes are few -- As Jesus cites of Him -- "Come unto me" the moiety That wafts the Seraphim --
1587He ate and drank the precious Words -- His Spirit grew robust --
He knew no more that he was poor, Nor that his frame was Dust --
He danced along the dingy Days And this Bequest of Wings Was but a Book -- What Liberty A loosened spirit brings --
1588This Me -- that walks and works -- must die, Some fair or stormy Day,
Adversity if it may be
Or wild prosperity
The Rumor's Gate was shut so tight Before my mind was born
Not even a Prognostic's push
Can make a Dent thereon --
Cosmopolities without a plea Alight in every Land
The compliments of Paradise From those within my Hand
Their dappled Journey to themselves A compensation fair
Knock and it shall be opened
Is their Theology
Not at Home to Callers Says the Naked Tree -Bonnet due in April -- Wishing you Good Day --
1591The Bobolink is gone -
The Rowdy of the Meadow --
And no one swaggers now but me -- The Presbyterian Birds
Can now resume the Meeting
He boldly interrupted that overflowing Day When supplicating mercy
In a portentous way
He swung upon the Decalogue
And shouted let us pray --
The Lassitudes of Contemplation Beget a force
They are the spirit's still vacation That him refresh --
The Dreams consolidate in action -What mettle fair
There came a Wind like a Bugle -- It quivered through the Grass
And a Green Chill upon the Heat So ominous did pass
We barred the Windows and the Doors As from an Emerald Ghost --
The Doom's electric Moccasin
That very instant passed --
On a strange Mob of panting Trees And Fences fled away
And Rivers where the Houses ran Those looked that lived -- that Day -- The Bell within the steeple wild
The flying tidings told -
How much can come
And much can go,
And yet abide the World!
Immured in Heaven!
What a Cell!
Let every Bondage be,
Thou sweetest of the Universe, Like that which ravished thee!
Declaiming Waters none may dread -- But Waters that are still
Are so for that most fatal cause In Nature -- they are full --
Few, yet enough,
Enough is One --
To that ethereal throng
Have not each one of us the right To stealthily belong?
'Tis not the swaying frame we miss, It is the steadfast Heart,
That had it beat a thousand years, With Love alone had bent,
Its fervor the electric Oar,
That bore it through the Tomb, Ourselves, denied the privilege, Consolelessly presume --
Who is it seeks my Pillow Nights -- With plain inspecting face --
"Did you" or "Did you not," to ask -- 'Tis "Conscience" -- Childhood's Nurse --
With Martial Hand she strokes the Hair Upon my wincing Head --
"All" Rogues "shall have their part in" what -- The Phosphorous of God --
Though the great Waters sleep, That they are still the Deep, We cannot doubt --
No vacillating God
Ignited this Abode
To put it out --