The Gentian weaves her fringes - The Maple's loom is red - My departing blossoms Obviate parade. A brief, but patient illness - An hour to prepare - And one below, this morning Is where the angels are - It was a short procession - The Bobolink was there - An aged Bee addressed us - And then we knelt in prayer - We trust that she was willing - We ask that we may be - Summer - Sister - Seraph! Let us go with thee! In the name of the Bee - And of the Butterfly - And of the Breeze - Amen! ___ Frequently the woods are pink - Frequently are brown. Frequently the hills undress Behind my native town. Oft a head is crested I was wont to see - And as oft a cranny Where it used to be - And the Earth - they tell me - On it's axis turned! Wonderful Rotation! By but twelve performed! ___ A sepal - petal - and a thorn Upon a common summer's morn - A flask of Dew - A Bee or two - A Breeze - a caper in the trees - And I'm a Rose! ___ Distrustful of the Gentian - And just to turn away, The fluttering of her fringes Chid my perfidy - Weary for my —— I will singing go - I shall not feel the sleet - then - I shall not fear the snow. Flees so the phantom meadow Before the breathless Bee - So bubble brooks in deserts On ears that dying lie - Burn so the evening spires To eyes that Closing go - Hangs so distant Heaven - To a hand below. ___ We lose - because we win - Gamblers - recollecting which - Toss their dice again! ___ All these my banners be. I sow my pageantry In May - It rises train by train - Then sleeps in state again - My chancel - all the plain Today. To lose - if One can find again - To miss - if One shall meet - The Burglar cannot rob - then - The Broker cannot cheat. So build the hillocks gaily Thou little spade of mine Leaving nooks for Daisy And for Columbine - You and I the secret Of the Crocus know - Let us chant it softly - "There is no more snow!" To him who keeps an Orchis' heart - The swamps are pink with June. ___ I had a guinea golden - I lost it in the sand - And tho' the sum was simple And pounds were in the land - Still, had it such a value Unto my frugal eye - That when I could not find it - I sat me down to sigh. I had a crimson Robin - Who sang full many a day But when the woods were painted - He - too - did fly away - Time brought me other Robins - Their ballads were the same - Still, for my missing Troubadour I kept the "house at hame". I had a star in heaven - One "Pleiad" was it's name - And when I was not heeding, It wandered from the same - And tho' the skies are crowded - And all the night ashine - I do not care about it - Since none of them are mine - My story has a moral - I have a missing friend - "Pleiad" it's name -and Robin - And guinea in the sand - And when this mournful ditty Accompanied with tear - Shall meet the eye of traitor In country far from here - Grant that repentance solemn May seize upon his mind - And he no consolation Beneath the sun may find. ___ There is a morn by men unseen - Whose maids upon remoter green Keep their seraphic May - And all day long, with dance and game, And gambol I may never name - Employ their holiday. Here to light measure, move the feet Which walk no more the village street - Nor by the wood are found - Here are the birds that sought the sun When last year's distaff idle hung And summer's brows were bound. Ne'er saw I such a wondrous scene - Ne'er such a ring on such a green - Nor so serene array - As if the stars some summer night Should swing their cups of Chrysolite - And revel till the day - Like thee to dance - like thee to sing - People upon the mystic green - I ask, each new May morn. I wait thy far - fantastic bells - Announcing me in other dells - Unto the different dawn! ___ As if I asked a common Alms, And in my wondering hand A Stranger pressed a Kingdom, And I, bewildered, stand - As if I asked the Orient Had it for me a Morn - And it should lift it's purple Dikes, And shatter Me with Dawn! ___ She slept beneath a tree - Remembered but by me. I touched her Cradle mute - She recognized the foot - Put on her carmine suit And see! ___ The feet of people walking home With gayer sandals go - The Crocus - till she rises The Vassal of the snow - The lips at Hallelujah Long years of practise bore Till bye and bye these Bargemen Walked singing on the shore. Pearls are the Diver's farthings Extorted from the sea - Pinions - the Seraph's wagon Pedestrian once - as we - Night is the morning's Canvas Larceny - legacy - Death, but our rapt attention To Immortality. My figures fail to tell me How far the village lies - Whose peasants are the angels - Whose Cantons dot the skies - My Classics vail their faces - My faith that Dark adores - Which from it's solemn abbeys Such resurrection pours. ___ It's all I have to bring today - This, and my heart beside - This, and my heart, and all the fields - And all the meadows wide - Be sure you count - sh'd I forget Some one the sum could tell - This, and my heart, and all the Bees Which in the Clover dwell. ___ Morns like these - we parted - Noons like these - she rose - Fluttering first - then firmer To her fair repose. Never did she lisp it - It was not for me - She - was mute from transport - I - from agony - Till - the evening nearing One the curtains drew - Quick! A sharper rustling! And this linnet flew! ___ So has a Daisy vanished From the fields today - So tiptoed many a slipper To Paradise away - Oozed so, in crimson bubbles Day's departing tide - Blooming - tripping - flowing - Are ye then with God? ___ If those I loved were lost The Crier's voice w'd tell me - If those I loved were found The bells of Ghent w'd ring - Did those I loved repose The Daisy would impel me. Philip - when bewildered Bore his riddle in! ___ Adrift! A little boat adrift! And night is coming down! Will no one guide a little boat Unto the nearest town? So sailors say - on yesterday - Just as the dusk was brown One little boat gave up it's strife And gurgled down and down. So angels say - on yesterday - Just as the dawn was red One little boat - o'erspent with gales - Retrimmed it's masts - redecked it's sails - And shot - exultant on! ___ Summer for thee, grant I may be When Summer days are flown! Thy music still, when Whippowil And Oriole - are done! For thee to bloom, I'll skip the tomb And row my blossoms o'er! Pray gather me - Anemone - Thy flower - forevermore! ___ When Roses cease to bloom, Sir, And Violets are done - When Bumblebees in solemn flight Have passed beyond the Sun - The hand that paused to gather Upon this Summer's day Will idle lie - in Auburn - Then take my flowers - pray! ___ If recollecting were forgetting, Then I remember not, And if forgetting, recollecting, How near I had forgot, And if to miss, were merry, And to mourn, were gay, How very blithe the fingers That gathered this, today! ___ On this wondrous sea Sailing silently, Ho! Pilot, ho! Knowest thou the shore Where no breakers roar - Where the storm is o'er? In the peaceful west Many the sails at rest - The anchors fast - Thither I pilot thee - Land Ho! Eternity! Ashore at last! ___ Garlands for Queens, may be - Laurels - for rare degree Of soul or sword - Ah - but remembering me - Ah - but remembering thee - Nature in chivalry - Nature in charity - Nature in equity - This Rose ordained! ___ Nobody knows this little Rose - It might a pilgrim be Did I not take it from the ways And lift it up to thee. Only a Bee will miss it - Only a Butterfly, Hastening from far journey - On it's breast to lie - Only a Bird will wonder - Only a Breeze will sigh - Ah Little Rose - how easy For such as thee to die! ___