What shall I do - it whimpers so - This little Hound within the Heart - All day and night - with bark and start - And yet - it will not go? Would you untie it - were you me - Would it stop whining if to Thee I sent it - even now? It should not teaze you - by your chair - Or on the mat - or if it dare - To climb your dizzy knee - Or sometimes - at your side to run - When you were willing - May it come - Tell Carlo - He'll tell me! ___ How many times these low feet staggered - Only the soldered mouth can tell - Try - can you stir the awful rivet - Try - can you lift the hasps of steel! Stroke the cool forehead - hot so often - Lift - if you care - the listless hair - Handle the adamantine fingers Never a thimble - more - shall wear - Buzz the dull flies - on the chamber window - Brave - shines the sun through the freckled pane - Fearless - the cobweb swings from the ceiling - Indolent Housewife - in Daisies - lain! ___ Make me a picture of the sun - So I can hang it in my room. And make believe I'm getting warm When others call it "Day"! Draw me a Robin - on a stem - So I am hearing him, I'll dream, And when the Orchards stop their tune - Put my pretense - away - Say if it's really - warm at noon - Whether it's Buttercups - that "skim" - Or Butterflies - that "bloom"? Then - skip - the frost - upon the lea - And skip the Russet - on the tree - Let's play those - never come! ___ Bound - a Trouble - and Lives will bear it - Circumscription - enables Wo - Still to anticipate - Were no limit - Who were sufficient to Misery? State it the Ages - to a cipher - And it will ache - contented on - Sing, at it's pain, as any Workman - Notching the fall of the Even Sun - ___ What is - "Paradise" - Who live there - Are they "Farmers" - Do they "hoe" - Do they know that this is "Amherst" - And that I - am coming - too - Do they wear "new shoes" - in "Eden" - Is it always pleasant - there - Wont they scold us - when we're hungry - Or tell God - how cross we are - You are sure there's such a person As "a Father" - in the sky - So if I get lost - there - ever - Or do what the Nurse calls "die" - I shant walk the "Jasper" - barefoot - Ransomed folks - wont laugh at me - Maybe - "Eden" a'nt so lonesome As New England used to be! ___ The murmur of a Bee A Witchcraft - yieldeth me - If any ask me why - 'Twere easier to die - Than tell - The Red upon the Hill Taketh away my will - If anybody sneer - Take care - for God is here - That's all. The Breaking of the Day Addeth to my Degree - If any ask me how - Artist - who drew me so - Must tell! ___ You love me - you are sure - I shall not fear mistake - I shall not cheated wake - Some grinning morn - To find the Sunrise left - And Orchards - unbereft - And Dollie - gone! I need not start - you're sure - That night will never be - When frightened - home to Thee I run - To find the windows dark - And no more Dollie - mark - Quite none? Be sure you're sure - you know - I'll bear it better now - If you'll just tell me so - Than when - a little dull Balm grown - Over this pain of mine - You sting - again! ___ My River runs to Thee - Blue Sea - Wilt welcome me? My River waits reply - Oh Sea - look graciously! I'll fetch thee Brooks From spotted nooks - Say Sea - take me? ___ It's such a little thing to weep - So short a thing to sigh - And yet - by Trades - the size of these We men and women die! ___ He was weak, and I was strong - then - So He let me lead him in - I was weak, and He was strong then - So I let him lead me - Home. 'Twas'nt far - the door was near - 'Twas'nt dark - for He went - too - 'Twas'nt loud, for He said nought - That was all I cared to know. Day knocked - and we must part - Neither - was strongest - now - He strove - and I strove - too - We did'nt do it - tho'! ___ The Skies cant keep their secret! They tell it to the Hills - The Hills just tell the Orchards - And they - the Daffodils! A Bird - by chance - that goes that way - Soft overhears the whole - If I should bribe the little Bird - Who knows but she would tell? I think I wont - however - It's finer - not to know - If Summer were an Axiom - What sorcery had Snow? So keep your secret - Father! I would not - if I could - Know what the Sapphire Fellows, do, In your new-fashioned world! ___ Poor little Heart! Did they forget thee? Then dinna care! Then dinna care! Proud little Heart! Did they forsake thee? Be debonnaire! Be debonnaire! Frail little Heart! I would not break thee - Could'st credit me? Could'st credit me? Gay little Heart - Like Morning Glory! Wind and Sun - wilt thee array! ___ I shall know why - when Time is over - And I have ceased to wonder why - Christ will explain each separate anguish In the fair schoolroom of the sky - He will tell me what "Peter" promised - And I - for wonder at his woe - I shall forget the drop of Anguish That scalds me now - that scalds me now! ___ On this long storm the Rainbow rose - On this late morn - the Sun - The clouds - like listless Elephants - Horizons - straggled down - The Birds rose smiling, in their nests - The gales - indeed - were done - Alas, how heedless were the eyes - On whom the summer shone! The quiet nonchalance of death - No Daybreak - can bestir - The slow - Archangel's syllables Must awaken her! ___ Musicians wrestle everywhere - All day - among the crowded air I hear the silver strife - And - waking - long before the morn - Such transport breaks upon the town I think it that "New life"! It is not Bird - it has no nest - Nor "Band" - in brass and scarlet - drest - Nor Tamborin - nor Man - It is not Hymn from pulpit read - The "Morning Stars" the Treble led On Time's first afternoon! Some - say - it is "the Spheres" - at play! Some say - that bright Majority Of vanished Dames - and Men! Some - think it service in the place Where we - with late - celestial face - Please God - shall ascertain! ___ For this - accepted Breath - Through it - compete with Death - The fellow cannot touch this Crown - By it - my title take - Ah, what a royal sake To my nescessity - stooped down! No Wilderness - can be Where this attendeth me - No Desert Noon - No fear of frost to come Haunt the perennial bloom - But Certain June! Get Gabriel - to tell - the royal syllable - Get Saints - with new - unsteady tongue - To say what trance below Most like their glory show - Fittest the Crown! ___ We dont cry - Tim and I - We are far too grand - But we bolt the door tight To prevent a friend - Then we hide our brave face Deep in our hand - Not to cry - Tim and I - We are far too grand - Nor to dream - he and me - Do we condescend - We just shut our brown eye To see to the end - Tim - see Cottages - But, Oh, so high! Then - we shake - Tim and I - And lest I - cry - Tim - reads a little Hymn - And we both pray, Please, Sir, I and Tim - Always lost the way! We must die - by and by - Clergymen say - Tim - shall - if I - do - I - too - if he - How shall we arrange it - Tim - was - so - shy? Take us simultaneous - Lord - I - "Tim" - and - me! ___ Dying! Dying in the night! Wont somebody bring the light So I can see which way to go Into the everlasting snow? And "Jesus"! Where is Jesus gone? They said that Jesus - always came - Perhaps he doesn't know the House - This way, Jesus, Let him pass! Somebody run to the great gate And see if Dollie's coming! Wait! I hear her feet upon the stair! Death wont hurt - now Dollie's here! ___ Morning - is the place for Dew - Corn - is made at Noon - After dinner light - for flowers - Dukes - for Setting Sun! ___ An awful Tempest mashed the air - The clouds were gaunt, and few - A Black - as of a spectre's cloak Hid Heaven and Earth from view - The creatures chuckled on the Roofs - And whistled in the air - And shook their fists - And gnashed their teeth - And swung their frenzied hair - The morning lit - the Birds arose - The Monster's faded eyes Turned slowly to his native coast - And peace - was Paradise! ___ I'm "wife" - I've finished that - That other state - I'm Czar - I'm "Woman" now - It's safer so - How odd the Girl's life looks Behind this soft Eclipse - I think that Earth feels so To folks in Heaven - now - This being comfort - then That other kind - was pain - But why compare? I'm "Wife"! Stop there! ___ I stole them from a Bee - Because - Thee - Sweet plea - He pardoned me! ___ Two swimmers wrestled on the spar - Until the morning sun - When One - turned smiling to the land - Oh God! the Other One! The stray ships - passing - Spied a face - Upon the waters borne - With eyes in death - still begging raised - And hands - beseeching - thrown! ___ My eye is fuller than my vase - Her Cargo - is of Dew - And still - my Heart - my eye outweighs - East India - for you! ___ He forgot - and I - remembered - 'Twas an everyday affair - Long ago as Christ and Peter - "Warmed them" at the "Temple fire". "Thou wert with him" - quoth "the Damsel"? "No" - said Peter, 'twas'nt me - Jesus merely "looked" at Peter - Could I do aught else - to Thee? ___ A slash of Blue! A sweep of Gray! Some scarlet patches - on the way - Compose an evening sky - A little Purple - slipped between - Some Ruby Trowsers - hurried on - A Wave of Gold - A Bank of Day - This just makes out the morning sky! ___ I should not dare to leave my friend, Because - because if he should die While I was gone - and I - too late - Should reach the Heart that wanted me - If I should disappoint the eyes That hunted - hunted so - to see - And could not bear to shut until They "noticed" me - they noticed me - If I should stab the patient faith So sure I'd come - so sure I'd come - It listening - listening - went to sleep - Telling my tardy name - My Heart would wish it broke before - Since breaking then - since breaking then - Were useless as next morning's sun - Where midnight frosts - had lain! ___ The Flower must not blame the Bee - That seeketh his felicity Too often at her door - But teach the Footman from Vevay - Mistress is "not at home" - to say - To people - any more! ___ Some keep the Sabbath going to Church - I keep it, staying at Home - With a Bobolink for a Chorister - And an Orchard, for a Dome - Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice - I, just wear my Wings - And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church, Our little Sexton - sings. God preaches, a noted Clergyman - And the sermon is never long, So instead of getting to Heaven, at last - I'm going, all along. ___