Rowing in Eden Ah, the Sea! Might I but moor - Tonight! In Thee!
x x x
254 `Hope` is a thing with feathers That perches in the soul And sings the tune without words And never stops - at all
And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard And sore must be the storm That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm
I've heard it in the chillest land And on the strangest Sea Yet, never, in Extremity, It asked a crumb - of Me.
x x x
303 The Soul selects her own Society Then - shut the Door To her divine Majority Present no more
Unmoved-she notes the Chariots-pausingAt her low Gate Unmoved - an Emperor is kneeling Upon her Mat
I've known her - from an ample nation Choose One Then- close the Valves of her attentionLike Stone
x x x
313 I should have been too glad, I see Too lifted - for the scant degree Of Life's penurious Round; My little Circuit would have shamed This new Circumference - have blamed The homelier time behind.
I should have been too saved - I see Too rescued - Fear too dim to me That I could spell the Prayer I knew so perfect - yesterday -That Scalding one - "Sabachthani"Recited fluent -- here
Earth would have been too much - I see And Heaven- not enough for me I should have had the Joy
Without the Fear - to justify The Palm - without the Calvary; So, Saviour, Crucify
Defeat whets Victory - they sayThe Reefs - in old GethsemaneEndear the Coast beyond! 'T is Beggars - Banquets best define; 'T is parching - vitalizes Wine, "Faith" bleats - to understand!
x x x
371 A precious-mouldering pleasure-'t isTo meet an Antique Book, In just the Dress his Century wore A privilege - I think
His venerable Hand to take And warming in our own A passage back- or two- to make To Times when he- was young
His quaint opinions - to inspect His thoughts to ascertain On Themes concern our mutual mindThe Literature of Man
What interested Scholars- mostWhat Competitions ran When Plato - was a Certainty And Sophocles - a Man
When Sappho - was a living Girl And Beatrice wore The Gown that Dante- deified Facts Centuries before
He traverses - familiar As One should come to Town And tell you all your Dreams-were trueHe lived - where Dreams were born
His presence is Enchantment, You beg him not to go Old Volumes shake their Vellum Heads And tantalize - just so
409
THE BATTLE-FIELD. They dropped like Flakes Tthey dropped like Stars Like Petals from a Rose When suddenly across the June A wind with fingers - goes
They perished in the Seamless Grass, -No eye could find the place But God can summon every face On his Repealless - List .
* * *
470 I am alive - I guess The Branches on my Hand Are full of Morning Glory And at my finger's end The Carmine - tingles warm And if I hold a Glass Across my Mouth - it blurs it Physician's - proof of Breath
I am alive - because I am not in a Room The Parlor - Commonly - it is So Visitors may come And lean - and view it sidewise And add " How cold - it grew" And " Was it conscious - when it stepped In Immortality? "
I am alive - because I do not own a House Entitled to myself - precise And fitting to no one else
And marked my Girlhood's name So Visitors may know Which Door is mine - and not mistake And try another Key
How good-to be alive! How infinite to be Alive -- two-fold -The Birth I had -And this -- besides, in -- Thee!
x x x
510 It was not Death, for I stood up, And all the Dead, lie down It was not Night, for all the Bells Put out their Tongues, for Noon.
It was not Frost, for on my Flesh I felt Siroccos - crawl Nor Fire - for just my Marble feet Could keep a Chancel, cool
And yet it tasted, like them all, The Figures I have seen Set orderly, for Burial, Reminded me, of mine
As if my life were shaven, And fitted to a frame, And could not breathe without a key, And "t was like Midnight, some
When everything that ticked-has stoppedAnd Space stares all around Or Grisly frosts- first Autumn morns, Repeal the Beating Ground
But most, like Chaos -- Stopless - cool Without a Chance, or Spar Or even a Report of Land To justify - Despair.
x x x
540 I Took my Power in my HandAnd went against the World 'T was not so much as David -- hadBut I was twice as bold
I aimed my Pebble - but Myself Was all the one that fellWas it Goliaf - was too largeOr was myself - too small?
x x x
543 I fear a Man of frugal SpeechI fear a Silent ManHaranguer - I can overtake Or Babbler - entertain
But He who weigheth - While the RestExpend their furthest poundOf this Man - I am waryI fear that He is Grand.
x x x
619 Glee - the great storm is over Four - have recovered the Land Forty - gone down together Into the boiling Sand
Ring - for the Scant Salvation Toll - for the bonnie Souls Neighbor - and friend - and Bridegroom, Spinning upon the Shoals
How they will tell the StoryWhen Winter shake the Door Till the Children urge - But the Forty Did they - come back no more?
Then a softness - suffuses the Story And a silence - the Teller's eye And the Children - no further question And only the Sea - reply
x x x
621 I asked no other thing No other - was denied I offered Being - for it The Mighty Merchant sneered
Brazil? He twirled a Button Without a glance my way " But - Madam - is there nothing else That We can show - Today? "
x x x
657 I dwell in Possibility A fairer House than Prose More numerous of Windows Superior - for Doors
Of Chambers as the Cedars Impregnable of Eye And for an Everlasting Roof The Gambrels of the Sky
Of Visitors - the fairest For Occupation - This The spreading wide my narrow Hands To gather Paradise
x x x
680 Each Life Converges to some Centre Expressed - or still Exists in every Human Nature A Goal
Embodied scarcely to itself- it may beToo fair For Credibility's presumption To mar
Adored with caution- as a Brittle HeavenTo reach Were hopeless Rainbow's Raiment To touch
Yet persevered toward
sure- for the distance; How highUnto the Saints" slow diligenceThe Sky
Ungained- it may be
by a Life's low VentureBut then Eternity enables the endeavoring Again.
x x x
686 They say that "Time assuages"
Time never did assuageAn actual suffering strengthens
As Sinews do, with age
Time is a Test of Trouble,
But not a RemedyIf such it prove, it prove too
There was no Malady
x x x
712 Because I could not stop for DeathHe kindly stopped for meThe Carriage held but just OurselvesAnd Immortality.
We slowly drove - He knew no haste And I had put away My labor, and my leisure too, For His Civility
We passed the School where Children strove At Recess - in the RingWe passed the Fields of Gazing Grain We passed the Setting Sun
Or rather -- He passed UsThe Dews drew quivering and chillFor only Gossamer, my GownMy Tippet -- only Tulle
We paused before a House that seemed A Swelling of the GroundThe Roof was scarcely visibleThe Cornice -- in the Ground
Since then - "t is Centuries-and yet Feels shorter than the Day I first surmised the Horses" Heads Were toward Eternity
x x x
875 I stepped from Plank to Plank A slow and cautious way The Stars about my Head I felt About my Feet the Sea.
I knew not but the next Would be my final inch This gave me that precarious Gait Some call Experience.
x x x
887 We outgrow love like other things And put it in the Drawer Till it an Antique fashion shows Like Costumes Grandsires wore.
x x x
919 If I can stop one Heart from breaking I shall not live in vain If I can ease one Life the Aching, Or cool one Pain, Or help one fainting Robin Unto his Nest again, I shall not live in Vain.
x x x
1072 Title divine - is mine! The Wife - without the Sign! Acute Degree - conferred on me Empress of Calvary! Royal - all but the Crown! Betrothed - without the swoon God sends us Women When you - hold - Garnet to Garnet Gold - to Gold
Born - Bridalled - Shrouded In a Day Tri Victory " My Husband" - women say Stroking the Melody Is this - the way?
x x x
1176 We never know how high we are Till we are called to rise And then if we are true to plan Our statures touch the skies
The Heroism we recite Would be a daily thing Did not ourselves the Cubits warp For fear to be a King
x x x
1182 Rememberance has a Rear and Front 'T is something like a House It has a Garret also For Refuse and the Mouse,
Besides the deepest Cellar That ever Mason laid Look to it by its Fathoms Ourselves be not pursued
x x x
1212 A word is dead When it is said, Some say. I say it just Begins to live That day.
x x x
1263 There is no Frigate like a Book To take us Lands away Nor any Coursers like a Page Of prancing Poetry
This Traverse may the poorest take Without oppress of Toll How frugal is the Chariot That bears the Human soul.
x x x
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
x x x
1335 Let me not mar that perfect Dream By an Auroral stain But so adjust my daily Night That it will come again...
x x x
1459 Belshazzar had a Letter -He never had but one Belshazzar's Correspondent Concluded and begun In that immortal Copy The Conscience of us all Can read without its Glasses On Revelation's Wall

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