Removed from Accident of Loss

Removed from Accident of Loss
By Accident of Gain
Befalling not my simple Days —
Myself had just to earn —

Of Riches — as unconscious
As is the Brown Malay
Of Pearls in Eastern Waters —
Marked His — What Holiday

Would stir his slow conception —
Had he the power to dream
That but the Dower's fraction —
Awaited even — Him —

Undue Significance a starving man attaches

Undue Significance a starving man attaches
To Food —
Far off — He sighs — and therefore — Hopeless —
And therefore — Good —

Partaken — it relieves — indeed —
But proves us
That Spices fly
In the Receipt — It was the Distance —
Was Savory —

We met as Sparks — Diverging Flints

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 —
We knew by change between itself
And that etherial Spark.

It struck me — every Day —

It struck me — every Day —
The Lightning was as new
As if the Cloud that instant slit
And let the Fire through —

It burned Me — in the Night —
It Blistered to My Dream —
It sickened fresh opon my sight —
With every Morn that came —

I thought that Storm — was brief —
The Maddest — quickest by —
But Nature lost the Date of This —
And left it in the Sky —

"Lethe" in my flower,

"Lethe" in my flower,
Of which they who drink,
In the fadeless Orchards
Hear the bobolink!

Merely flake or petal
As the Eye beholds
Jupiter! my father!
I perceive the rose!

Sweet Mountains — Ye tell Me no lie —

Sweet Mountains — Ye tell Me no lie —
Never deny Me — Never fly —
Those same unvarying Eyes
Turn on Me — When I fail — or feign,
Or take the Royal names in vain —
Their far — slow — Violet Gaze —

My Strong Madonnas — Cherish still —
The Wayward Nun — beneath the Hill —
Whose service — is to You —
Her latest Worship — When the Day
Fades from the Firmament away —
To lift Her Brows on You —

I learned — at least — what Home could be —

I 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 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 —

Power is a familiar growth —

Power is a familiar growth —
Not foreign — not to be —
Beside us like a bland Abyss
In every company —
Escape it — there is but a chance —
When consciousness and clay
Lean forward for a final glance
Disprove that, and you may —

Suspense — is Hostiler than Death —

Suspense — is Hostiler than Death —
Death — tho'soever Broad,
Is just Death, and cannot increase —
Suspense — does not conclude —

But perishes — to live anew —
But just anew to die —
Annihilation — plated fresh
With Immortality —

A fuzzy fellow, without feet —

A fuzzy fellow, without feet —
Yet doth exceeding run!
Of velvet, is his Countenance —
And his complexion, dun!

Sometime, he dwelleth in the grass!
Sometime, opon a bough,
From which he doth descent in plush
Opon the Passer-by!

All this in summer —
But when winds alarm the Forest Folk,
He taketh Damask Residence —
And struts in sewing silk!

Then, finer than a Lady,
Emerges in the spring!
A Feather on each shoulder!
You'd scarce recognize him!

By men, yclept Caterpillar!
By me! But who am I,
To tell the pretty secret
Of the Butterfly!

Did Our Best Moment last —

Did Our Best Moment last —
'Twould supersede the Heaven —
A few — and they by Risk — procure —
So this Sort — are not given —

Except as stimulants — in
Cases of Despair —
Or Stupor — The Reserve —
These Heavenly moments are —

A Grant of the Divine —
That Certain as it Comes —
Withdraws — and leaves the dazzled Soul
In her unfurnished Rooms —

Faith — is the Pierless Bridge

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 Vail

To what, could We presume
The Bridge would cease to be
To Our far, vascillating Feet
A first Nescessity.

I'll tell you how the Sun rose —

I'll tell you how the Sun rose —
A Ribbon at a time —
The Steeples swam in Amethyst —
The news, like Squirrels, ran —
The Hills untied their Bonnets —
The Bobolinks — begun —
Then I said softly to myself —
"That must have been the Sun"!
But how he set — I know not —
There seemed a purple stile
That little Yellow boys and girls
Were climbing all the while —
Till when they reached the other side —
A Cominie in Gray —
Put gently up the evening Bars —
And led the flock away —

The Lady feeds Her little Bird

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 —

We knew not that we were to live —

We knew not that we were to live —
Nor when we are to die —
Our ignorance our Cuirass is —
We wear Mortality
As lightly as an Option Gown
Till asked to take it off —
By his intrusion, God is known —
It is the same with Life —

Just to be Rich

Just to be Rich
To waste my Guinea
On so broad a Heart!
Just to be Poor,
For Barefoot pleasure
You, Sir, shut me out!

When I hoped I feared —

When I hoped I feared —
Since I hoped I dared
Everywhere alone
As a Church remain —
Spectre cannot harm —
Serpent cannot charm —
He deposes Doom
Who hath suffered him —

One life of so much consequence!

One life of so much consequence!
Yet I — for it — would pay —
My soul’s entire income —
In ceaseless — salary —

One Pearl — to me — so signal —
That I would instant dive —
Although — I knew — to take it —
Would — cost me — just a life!

The Sea is full — I know it!
That — does not blur my Gem!
It burns — distinct from all the row —
Intact — in Diadem!

The life is thick — I know it!
Yet — not so dense a crowd —
But Monarchs — are perceptible —
Far down the dustiest Road!

If the foolish, call them “flowers” —

If the foolish, call them “flowers” —
Need the wiser, tell?
If the Savans “Classify” them
It is just as well!

Those who read the “Revelations”
Must not criticize
Those who read the same Edition —
With beclouded Eyes!

Could we stand with that Old “Moses” —
“Canaan” denied —
Scan like him, the stately landscape
On the other side —

Doubtless, we should deem superfluous
Many Sciences,
Not pursued by learned Angels
In scholastic skies!

Low amid that glad Belles lettres
Grant that we may stand —
Stars, amid profound Galaxies —
At that grand “Right hand”!

He scanned it — Staggered —

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 were there —
Groped backward at Himself
Caressed a Trigger absently
And wandered out of Life —

We outgrow love, like others things

We outgrow love, like other things
And put it in the Drawer —
Till it an Antique fashion shows —
Like Costumes Grandsires wore.

A Visitor in Marl —

A Visitor in Marl —
Who influences Flowers —
Till they are orderly as Busts —
And Elegant — as Glass —

Who visits in the Night —
And just before the Sun —
Concludes his glistening interview —
Caresses — and is gone —

But whom his fingers touched —
And where his feet have run —
And whatsoever Mouth he kissed —
Is as it had not been —

Why make it doubt — it hurts it so —

Why make it doubt — it hurts it so —
So sick — to guess —
So strong — to know —
So brave — opon it's little Bed
To tell the very last They said
Unto Itself — and smile — And shake —
For that dear — distant — dangerous — sake —
But — the Instead — the Pinching fear
That Something — it did do — or dare —
Offend the Vision — and it flee —
And They no more remember me —
Nor ever turn to tell me why —
Oh, Master, This is Misery —

Each Second is the last

Each Second is the last
Perhaps, recalls the Man
Just measuring unconsciousness
The Sea and Spar between —

To fail within a chance —
How terribler a thing
Than perish from the chance's list
Before the Perishing!

Lest they should come — is all my fear

Lest they should come — is all my fear
When sweet incarcerated — here

She dwelleth in the Ground —

She dwelleth in the Ground —
Where Daffodils — abide —
Her Maker — Her Metropolis —
The Universe — Her Maid —

To fetch Her Grace — and Hue —
And Fairness — and Renown —
The Firmament's — To pluck Her —
And fetch Her Thee — be mine —

Purple —

         Purple —

The Color of a Queen, is this —
The Color of a Sun
At setting — this and Amber —
Beryl — and this, at Noon —

And when at night — Auroran widths
Fling suddenly on Men —
'Tis this — and Witchcraft — nature keeps
A Rank — for Iodine —

A House opon the Hight —

A House opon the Hight —
That Wagon never reached —
No Dead, were ever carried down —
No Peddler's Cart — approached —

Whose Chimney never smoked —
Whose Windows — Night and Morn —
Caught Sunrise first — and Sunset — last —
Then — held an Empty Pane —

Whose fate — Conjecture knew —
No other neighbor — did —
And what it was — we never lisped —
Because He — never told —

Me from Myself — to banish —

Me from Myself — to banish —
Had I Art —
Invincible My Fortress
Unto All Heart —

But since Myself — assault Me —
How have I peace
Except by subjugating
Consciousness?

And since We're Mutual Monarch
How this be
Except by Abdication —
Me — of Me — ?

Love — thou art high —

Love — thou art high —
I cannot climb thee —
But, were it Two —
Who knows but we —
Taking turns — at the Chimborazo —
Ducal — at last — stand up by thee —

Love — thou art deep —
I cannot cross thee —
But, were there Two
Instead of One —
Rower, and Yacht — some sovreign Summer —
Who knows — but we'd reach the Sun?

Love — thou art Vailed —
A few — behold thee —
Smile — and alter — and prattle — and die —
Bliss — were an Oddity — without thee —
Nicknamed by God —
Eternity —

Had I presumed to hope —

Had I presumed to hope —
The loss had been to Me
A Value — for the Greatness' Sake —
As Giants — gone away —

Had I presumed to gain
A Favor so remote —
The Failure but confirm the Grace
In further Infinite —

'Tis failure — not of Hope —
But Confident Despair —
Advancing on Celestial Lists —
With faint — Terrestrial power —

'Tis Honor — though I die —
For That no Man obtain
Till He be justified by Death —
This — is the Second Gain —