What Soft — Cherubic Creatures —

What Soft — Cherubic Creatures —
These Gentlewomen are —
One would as soon assault a Plush —
Or violate a Star —

Such Dimity Convictions —
A Horror so refined
Of freckled Human Nature —
Of Deity — Ashamed —

It's such a common — Glory —
A Fisherman's — Degree —
Redemption — Brittle Lady —
Be so — ashamed of Thee —

Within my Garden, rides a Bird

Within my Garden, rides a Bird
Opon a single Wheel —
Whose spokes a dizzy music make
As 'twere a travelling Mill —

He never stops, but slackens
Above the Ripest Rose —
Partakes without alighting
And praises as he goes,

Till every spice is tasted —
And then his Fairy Gig
Reels in remoter atmospheres —
And I rejoin my Dog,

And He and I, perplex us
If positive, 'twere we —
Or bore the Garden in the Brain
This Curiosity —

But He, the best Logician,
Refers my clumsy eye —
To just vibrating Blossoms!
An exquisite Reply!

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.

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 —

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 —

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.

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 —

We grow accustomed to the Dark —

We grow accustomed to the Dark —
When Light is put away —
As when the Neighbor holds the Lamp
To witness her Good bye —

A Moment — We uncertain step
For newness of the night —
Then — fit our Vision to the Dark —
And meet the Road — erect —

And so of larger — Darknesses —
Those Evenings of the Brain —
When not a Moon disclose a sign —
Or Star — come out — within —

The Bravest — grope a little —
And sometimes hit a Tree
Directly in the Forehead —
But as they learn to see —

Either the Darkness alters —
Or something in the sight
Adjusts itself to Midnight —
And Life steps almost straight.

Who occupies this House?

Who occupies this House?
A Stranger I must judge
Since No one knows His Circumstance —
'Tis well the name and age

Are writ opon the Door
Or I should fear to pause
Where not so much as Honest Dog
Approach encourages —

It seems a Curious Town —
Some Houses very old,
Some — newly raised this Afternoon,
Were I compelled to build

It should not be among
Inhabitants so still
But where the Birds assemble
And Boys were possible

Before Myself was born
'Twas settled, so they say,
A Territory for the Ghosts —
And Squirrels, formerly.

Until a Pioneer, as
Settlers often do
Liking the quiet of the Place
Attracted more unto —

And from a Settlement
A Capitol has grown
Distinguished for the gravity
Of every Citizen —

The Owner of this House
A Stranger He must be —
Eternity's Acquaintances
Are mostly so — to me —

What Inn is this

What Inn is this
Where for the night
Peculiar Traveller comes?
Who is the Landlord?
Where the maids?
Behold, what curious rooms!
No ruddy fires on the hearth —
No brimming Tankards flow.
Necromancer! Landlord!
Who are these below?