Upon his Saddle sprung a Bird And crossed a thousand Trees Before a Fence without a Fare His Fantasy did please
And then he lifted up his Throat And squandered such a Note A Universe that overheard Is stricken by it yet --
Of God we ask one favor,
That we may be forgiven --
For what, he is presumed to know -- The Crime, from us, is hidden -- Immured the whole of Life
Within a magic Prison
We reprimand the Happiness That too competes with Heaven.
Pursuing you in your transitions, In other Motes --
Of other Myths
Your requisition be.
The Prism never held the Hues, It only heard them play --
The going from a world we know To one a wonder still
Is like the child's adversity Whose vista is a hill,
Behind the hill is sorcery And everything unknown, But will the secret compensate For climbing it alone?
We send the Wave to find the Wave --
An Errand so divine,
The Messenger enamored too,
Forgetting to return,
We make the wise distinction still,
Soever made in vain,
The sagest time to dam the sea is when the sea is gone --
Each that we lose takes part of us; A crescent still abides,
Which like the moon, some turbid night, Is summoned by the tides.
Quite empty, quite at rest,
The Robin locks her Nest, and tries her Wings. She does not know a Route
But puts her Craft about
For rumored Springs --
She does not ask for Noon --
She does not ask for Boon,
Crumbless and homeless, of but one request -The Birds she lost --
Within that little Hive
Such Hints of Honey lay As made Reality a Dream And Dreams, Reality --
The ecstasy to guess Were a receipted bliss If grace could talk.
1609Sunset that screens, reveals -- Enhancing what we see
By menaces of Amethyst
And Moats of Mystery.
Morning that comes but once, Considers coming twice -- Two Dawns upon a single Morn, Make Life a sudden price.
1611Their dappled importunity Disparage or dismiss -The Obloquies of Etiquette Are obsolete to Bliss -- The Auctioneer of Parting
His "Going, going, gone"
Shouts even from the Crucifix, And brings his Hammer down -- He only sells the Wilderness, The prices of Despair
Range from a single human Heart To Two -- not any more --
Not Sickness stains the Brave, Nor any Dart,
Nor Doubt of Scene to come, But an adjourning Heart --
Parting with Thee reluctantly, That we have never met,
A Heart sometimes a Foreigner, Remembers it forgot --
Oh what a Grace is this, What Majesties of Peace, That having breathed
The fine -- ensuing Right Without Diminuet Proceed!
1616 Who abdicated 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
Secreted in a Star.
To try to speak, and miss the way And ask it of the Tears,
Is Gratitude's sweet poverty, The Tatters that he wears --
A better Coat if he possessed Would help him to conceal, Not subjugate, the Mutineer Whose title is "the Soul."
1618There are two Mays
And then a Must
And after that a Shall.
How infinite the compromise That indicates I will!
Not knowing when the Dawn will come, I open every Door,
Or has it Feathers, like a Bird,
Or Billows, like a Shore --
Circumference thou Bride of Awe Possessing thou shalt be
Possessed by every hallowed Knight That dares to covet thee
A Flower will not trouble her, it has so small a Foot, And yet if you compare the Lasts,
Hers is the smallest Boot --
A Sloop of Amber slips away Upon an Ether Sea,
And wrecks in Peace a Purple Tar, The Son of Ecstasy --
A World made penniless by that departure Of minor fabrics begs
But sustenance is of the spirit
The Gods but Dregs
Apparently with no surprise To any happy Flower
The Frost beheads it at its play -- In accidental power --
The blonde Assassin passes on -- The Sun proceeds unmoved To measure off another Day For an Approving God.
Back from the cordial Grave I drag thee He shall not take thy Hand
Nor put his spacious arm around thee That none can understand
No Life can pompless pass away -- The lowliest career
To the same Pageant wends its way As that exalted here --
How cordial is the mystery!
The hospitable Pall
A "this way" beckons spaciously -- A Miracle for all!
The pedigree of Honey
Does not concern the Bee, Nor lineage of Ecstasy
Delay the Butterfly
On spangle journeys to the peak Of some perceiveless thing -- The right of way to Tripoli
A more essential thing.
The Pedigree of Honey Does not concern the Bee -- A Clover, any time, to him, Is Aristocracy --
A Drunkard cannot meet a Cork Without a Revery --
And so encountering a Fly This January Day
Jamaicas of Remembrance stir That send me reeling in -
The moderate drinker of Delight Does not deserve the spring -- Of juleps, part are the Jug And more are in the joy -- Your connoisseur in Liquours Consults the Bumble Bee --
Arrows enamored of his Heart -- Forgot to rankle there
And Venoms he mistook for Balms disdained to rankle there --
As from the earth the light Balloon Asks nothing but release --
Ascension that for which it was, Its soaring Residence.
The spirit looks upon the Dust That fastened it so long
With indignation,
As a Bird
Defrauded of its song.
1631 Oh Future! thou secreted peace Or subterranean woe --
Is there no wandering route of grace That leads away from thee --
No circuit sage of all the course Descried by cunning Men
To balk thee of thy sacred Prey -- Advancing to thy Den --
So give me back to Death -- The Death I never feared
Except that it deprived of thee -- And now, by Life deprived,
In my own Grave I breathe
And estimate its size -
Its size is all that Hell can guess -- And all that Heaven was --
Still own thee -- still thou art
What surgeons call alive --
Though slipping -- slipping I perceive To thy reportless Grave --
Which question shall I clutch -- What answer wrest from thee Before thou dost exude away In the recallless sea?
1634Talk not to me of Summer Trees The foliage of the mind
A Tabernacle is for Birds
Of no corporeal kind
And winds do go that way at noon To their Ethereal Homes
Whose Bugles call the least of us To undepicted Realms
The Jay his Castanet has struck Put on your muff for Winter The Tippet that ignores his voice Is impudent to nature
Of Swarthy Days he is the close His Lotus is a chestnut
The Cricket drops a sable line No more from yours at present
The Sun in reigning to the West Makes not as much of sound As Cart of man in road below Adroitly turning round
That Whiffletree of Amethyst
Is it too late to touch you, Dear? We this moment knew --
Love Marine and Love terrene -- Love celestial too --
Go thy great way! The Stars thou meetst Are even as Thyself --
For what are Stars but Asterisks To point a human Life?
A Letter is a joy of Earth -- It is denied the Gods --
1640
Take all away from me, but leave me Ecstasy, And I am richer then than all my Fellow Men -- Ill it becometh me to dwell so wealthily
When at my very Door are those possessing more, In abject poverty --
Betrothed to Righteousness might be An Ecstasy discreet
But Nature relishes the Pinks
Which she was taught to eat --
"Red Sea," indeed! Talk not to me Of purple Pharaoh --
I have a Navy in the West
Would pierce his Columns thro' -- Guileless, yet of such Glory fine That all along the Line
Is it, or is it not, divine --
The Eye inquires with a sigh That Earth sh'd be so big --
What Exultation in the Woe -- What Wine in the fatigue!
1643
Extol thee -- could I? Then I will By saying nothing new --
But just the truest truth
That thou art heavenly.
Perceiving thee is evidence That we are of the sky Partaking thee a guaranty Of immortality
1644Some one prepared this mighty show To which without a Ticket go
The nations and the Days --
Displayed before the simplest Door That all may witness it and more, The pomp of summer Days.
1645The Ditch is dear to the Drunken man For is it not his Bed --
His Advocate -- his Edifice?
How safe his fallen Head
In her disheveled Sanctity --
Above him is the sky -
Oblivion bending over him
And Honor leagues away.
Why should we hurry -- why indeed? When every way we fly
We are molested equally By immortality.
No respite from the inference That this which is begun, Though where its labors lie A bland uncertainty
Besets the sight
This mighty night --
Of Glory not a Beam is left But her Eternal House -- The Asterisk is for the Dead, The Living, for the Stars --
1648The immortality she gave We borrowed at her Grave -- For just one Plaudit famishing, The Might of Human love --
1649A Cap of Lead across the sky Was tight and surly drawn
We could not find the mighty Face The Figure was withdrawn --
A Chill came up as from a shaft Our noon became a well
A Thunder storm combines the charms Of Winter and of Hell.
1650 A lane of Yellow led the eye Unto a Purple Wood
Whose soft inhabitants to be Surpasses solitude
If Bird the silence contradict Or flower presume to show In that low summer of the West Impossible to know --
A Word made Flesh is seldom And tremblingly partook
Nor then perhaps reported But have I not mistook
Each one of us has tasted With ecstasies of stealth
The very food debated
To our specific strength -
A Word that breathes distinctly Has not the power to die
Cohesive as the Spirit
It may expire if He --
"Made Flesh and dwelt among us" Could condescension be
Like this consent of Language This loved Philology.
Advance is Life's condition The Grave but a Relay Supposed to be a terminus That makes it hated so -
The Tunnel is not lighted Existence with a wall Is better we consider Than not exist at all -- As we pass Houses musing slow If they be occupied
So minds pass minds
If they be occupied
Beauty crowds me till I die Beauty mercy have on me But if I expire today
Let it be in sight of thee -
Conferring with myself
My stranger disappeared Though first upon a berry fat Miraculously fared
How paltry looked my cares My practise how absurd Superfluous my whole career Beside this travelling Bird
Down Time's quaint stream Without an oar
We are enforced to sail Our Port a secret
Our Perchance a Gale What Skipper would
Incur the Risk
What Buccaneer would ride Without a surety from the Wind Or schedule of the Tide --
Eden is that old-fashioned House We dwell in every day
Without suspecting our abode Until we drive away.
How fair on looking back, the Day We sauntered from the Door -- Unconscious our returning, But discover it no more.
1658Endanger it, and the Demand Of tickets for a sigh
Amazes the Humility
Of Credibility --
Recover it to Nature
And that dejected Fleet
Find Consternation's Carnival Divested of its Meat.
Fame is a fickle food Upon a shifting plate Whose table once a Guest but not
The second time is set.
Whose crumbs the crows inspect And with ironic caw
Flap past it to the
Farmer's Corn --
Men eat of it and die.
Glory is that bright tragic thing That for an instant
Means Dominion --
Warms some poor name That never felt the Sun,
Gently replacing
In oblivion --
Guest am I to have
Light my northern room
Why to cordiality so averse to come Other friends adjourn
Other bonds decay
Why avoid so narrowly
My fidelity --
He went by sleep that drowsy route To the surmising Inn --
At day break to begin his race Or ever to remain --
His mind of man, a secret makes I meet him with a start
He carries a circumference In which I have no part --
Or even if I deem I do He otherwise may know Impregnable to inquest However neighborly --
1664I did not reach Thee
But my feet slip nearer every day Three Rivers and a Hill to cross One Desert and a Sea
I shall not count the journey one When I am telling thee.
Two deserts, but the Year is cold So that will help the sand
One desert crossed --
The second one
Will feel as cool as land
Sahara is too little price
To pay for thy Right hand.
The Sea comes last -- Step merry, feet, So short we have to go --
To play together we are prone,
But we must labor now,
The last shall be the lightest load That we have had to draw.
The Sun goes crooked -
That is Night
Before he makes the bend.
We must have passed the Middle Sea -- Almost we wish the End
Were further off --
Too great it seems
So near the Whole to stand.
We step like Plush,
We stand like snow,
The waters murmur new.
Three rivers and the Hill are passed -Two deserts and the sea!
Now Death usurps my Premium And gets the look at Thee.
I know of people in the Grave Who would be very glad
To know the news I know tonight If they the chance had had.
'Tis this expands the least event And swells the scantest deed -- My right to walk upon the Earth If they this moment had.
1666I see thee clearer for the Grave That took thy face between No Mirror could illumine thee Like that impassive stone --
I know thee better for the Act That made thee first unknown The stature of the empty nest Attests the Bird that's gone.
1667I watcher her face to see which way She took the awful news --
Whether she died before she heard Or in protracted bruise
Remained a few slow years with us -Each heavier than the last --
A further afternoon to fail,
As Flower at fall of Frost.
If I could tell how glad I was
I should not be so glad -
But when I cannot make the Force, Nor mould it into Word,
I know it is a sign
That new Dilemna be
From mathematics further off Than for Eternity.
In snow thou comest --
Thou shalt go with the resuming ground, The sweet derision of the crow,
And Glee's advancing sound.
In fear thou comest --
Thou shalt go at such a gait of joy That man anew embark to live Upon the depth of thee.
In Winter in my Room
I came upon a Worm --
Pink, lank and warm --
But as he was a worm
And worms presume
Not quite with him at home -- Secured him by a string To something neighboring And went along.
A Trifle afterward
A thing occurred
I'd not believe it if I heard But state with creeping blood -- A snake with mottles rare Surveyed my chamber floor In feature as the worm before But ringed with power --
The very string with which I tied him -- too
When he was mean and new That string was there --
I shrank -- "How fair you are"! Propitiation's claw --
"Afraid," he hissed
"Of me"?
"No cordiality" --
He fathomed me --
Then to a Rhythm Slim
Secreted in his Form
As Patterns swim
Projected him.
That time I flew
Both eyes his way Lest he pursue
Nor ever ceased to run Till in a distant Town Towns on from mine I set me down
This was a dream.
Judgment is justest When the Judged,
His action laid away, Divested is of every Disk But his sincerity.
Honor is then the safest hue In a posthumous Sun -- Not any color will endure That scrutiny can burn. Lightly stepped a yellow star To its lofty place --
Loosed the Moon her silver hat From her lustral Face -
All of Evening softly lit
As an Astral Hall --
Father, I observed to Heaven, You are punctual.
Nature can do no more She has fulfilled her Dyes Whatever Flower fail to come Of other Summer days
Her crescent reimburse If other Summers be
Nature's imposing negative Nulls opportunity --
Not any sunny tone
From any fervent zone
Find entrance there --
Better a grave of Balm
Toward human nature's home -- And Robins near --
Than a stupendous Tomb Proclaiming to the Gloom
How dead we are --
1675 Of this is Day composed
A morning and a noon
A Revelry unspeakable
And then a gay unknown
Whose Pomps allure and spurn And dower and deprive
And penury for Glory
Remedilessly leave.
Of Yellow was the outer Sky In Yellower Yellow hewn
Till Saffron in Vermilion slid Whose seam could not be shewn.
On my volcano grows the Grass A meditative spot --
An acre for a Bird to choose Would be the General thought --
How red the Fire rocks below -- How insecure the sod
Did I disclose
Would populate with awe my solitude.
Peril as a Possesssion
'Tis Good to hear
Danger disintegrates Satiety
There's Basis there --
Begets an awe
That searches Human Nature's creases As clean as Fire.
Rather arid delight
If Contentment accrue
Make an abstemious Ecstasy Not so good as joy --
But Rapture's Expense Must not be incurred
With a tomorrow knocking And the Rent unpaid --
Sometimes with the Heart Seldom with the Soul
Scarcer once with the Might Few -- love at all.
Speech is one symptom of Affection And Silence one --
The perfectest communication Is heard of none --
Exists and its indorsement Is had within --
Behold, said the Apostle, Yet had not seen!
Summer begins to have the look Peruser of enchanting Book Reluctantly but sure perceives A gain upon the backward leaves --
Autumn begins to be inferred By millinery of the cloud
Or deeper color in the shawl That wraps the everlasting hill.
The eye begins its avarice A meditation chastens speech Some Dyer of a distant tree Resumes his gaudy industry.
Conclusion is the course of All At most to be perennial
And then elude stability
Recalls to immortality.
That she forgot me was the least I felt it second pain
That I was worthy to forget Was most I thought upon.
Faithful was all that I could boast But Constancy became
To her, by her innominate, A something like a shame.
The Blunder is in estimate. Eternity is there
We say, as of a Station -- Meanwhile he is so near
He joins me in my Ramble -- Divides abode with me --
No Friend have I that so persists As this Eternity.
The butterfly obtains
But little sympathy
Though favorably mentioned In Entomology --
Because he travels freely And wears a proper coat The circumspect are certain That he is dissolute --
Had he the homely scutcheon Of modest Industry
'Twere fitter certifying
For Immortality --
The event was directly behind Him Yet He did not guess
Fitted itself to Himself like a Robe Relished His ignorance.
Motioned itself to drill
Loaded and Levelled
And let His Flesh
Centuries from His soul.
The gleam of an heroic Act Such strange illumination The Possible's slow fuse is lit By the Imagination.
1688 The Hills erect their Purple Heads The Rivers lean to see
Yet Man has not of all the Throng A Curiosity.
The look of thee, what is it like Hast thou a hand or Foot Or Mansion of Identity
And what is thy Pursuit?
Thy fellows are they realms or Themes Hast thou Delight or Fear
Or Longing -- and is that for us
Or values more severe?
Let change transfuse all other Traits Enact all other Blame
But deign this least certificate -- That thou shalt be the same.
The ones that disappeared are back The Phoebe and the Crow
Precisely as in March is heard The curtness of the Jay --
Be this an Autumn or a Spring My wisdom loses way
One side of me the nuts are ripe The other side is May.
The overtakelessness of those Who have accomplished Death Majestic is to me beyond The majesties of Earth.
The soul her "Not at Home" Inscribes upon the flesh -- And takes her fair aerial gait Beyond the hope of touch.
1692The right to perish might be thought An undisputed right --
Attempt it, and the Universe
Upon the opposite
Will concentrate its officers -- You cannot even die
But nature and mankind must pause To pay you scrutiny.
The Sun retired to a cloud
A Woman's shawl as big --
And then he sulked in mercury Upon a scarlet log --
The drops on Nature's forehead stood Home flew the loaded bees --
The South unrolled a purple fan And handed to the trees.
The wind drew off
Like hungry dogs
Defeated of a bone --
Through fissures in
Volcanic cloud
The yellow lightning shone -- The trees held up
Their mangled limbs
Like animals in pain --
When Nature falls upon herself Beware an Austrian.
There is a solitude of space A solitude of sea
A solitude of death, but these Society shall be
Compared with that profounder site That polar privacy
A soul admitted to itself --
Finite infinity.
These are the days that Reindeer love And pranks the Northern star -- This is the Sun's objective,
And Finland of the Year.
They talk as slow as Legends grow No mushroom is their mind
But foliage of sterility
Too stolid for the wind --
They laugh as wise as Plots of Wit Predestined to unfold
The point with bland prevision Portentously untold.
1698 'Tis easier to pity those when dead That which pity previous
Would have saved --
A Tragedy enacted
Secures Applause
That Tragedy enacting
Too seldom does.
To do a magnanimous thing And take oneself by surprise If oneself is not in the habit of him Is precisely the finest of Joys --
Not to do a magnanimous thing
Notwithstanding it never be known Notwithstanding it cost us existence once Is Rapture herself spurn --