A Mien to move a Queen - Half Child - Half Heroine - An Orleans in the Eye That puts it's manner by For humbler Company When none are near Even a Tear - It's frequent Visitor - A Bonnet like a Duke - And yet a Wren's Peruke Were not so shy Of Goer by - And Hands - so slight - They would elate a sprite With merriment - A Voice that alters - Low And on the Ear can go Like Let of Snow - Or shift supreme - As tone of Realm On Subjects Diadem - Too small - to fear - Too distant - to endear - And so Men Compromise - And just - revere - ___ The Drop, that wrestles in the Sea - Forgets her own locality As I, in Thee - She knows herself an Offering small - Yet small, she sighs, if all, is all, How larger - be? The Ocean, smiles at her conceit - But she, forgetting Amphitrite - Pleads "Me"? ___ The Robin's my Criterion for Tune - Because I grow - where Robins do - But, were I Cuckoo born - I'd swear by him - The ode familiar - rules the Noon - The Buttercup's, my Whim for Bloom - Because, we're Orchard sprung - But, were I Britain born, I'd Daisies spurn - None but the Nut - October fit - Because, through dropping it, The Seasons flit - I'm taught - Without the Snow's Tableau Winter, were lie - to me - Because I see - New Englandly - The Queen, discerns like me - Provincially - ___ I've known a Heaven, like a Tent - To wrap it's shining Yards - Pluck up it's stakes, and disappear - Without the sound of Boards Or Rip of Nail - Or Carpenter - But just the miles of Stare - That signalize a Show's Retreat - In North America - No Trace - no Figment of the Thing That dazzled, Yesterday, No Ring - no Marvel - Men, and Feats - Dissolved as utterly - As Bird's far Navigation Discloses just a Hue - A plash of Oars, a Gaiety - Then swallowed up, of View. ___ I Came to buy a smile - today - But just a single smile - The smallest one upon your cheek - Will suit me just as well - The one that no one else would miss It shone so very small - I'm pleading at the "counter" - sir - Could you afford to sell? I've Diamonds - on my fingers! You know what Diamonds are! I've Rubies - like the Evening Blood - And Topaz - like the star! 'Twould be "a bargain" for a Jew! Say? May I have it - Sir? ___ A Clock stopped - Not the Mantel's - Geneva's farthest skill Cant put the puppet bowing - That just now dangled still - An awe came on the Trinket! The Figures hunched - with pain - Then quivered out of Decimals - Into Degreeless noon - It will not stir for Doctor's - This Pendulum of snow - This Shopman importunes it - While cool - concernless No - Nods from the Gilded pointers - Nods from the Seconds slim - Decades of Arrogance between The Dial life - And Him - ___ I'm Nobody! Who are you? Are you - Nobody - too? Then there's a pair of us! Don't tell! they'd advertise - you know! How dreary - to be - Somebody! How public - like a Frog - To tell one's name - the livelong June - To an admiring Bog! ___ I held a Jewel in my fingers - And went to sleep - The day was warm, and winds were prosy - I said "'Twill keep" - I woke - and chid my honest fingers, The Gem was gone - And now, an Amethyst remembrance Is all I own - ___ It is easy to work when the soul is at play - But when the soul is in pain - The hearing him put his playthings up Makes work difficult - then - It is simple, to ache in the Bone, or the Rind - But Gimblets - among the nerve - Mangle daintier - terribler - Like a Panther in the Glove - ___ That after Horror - that 'twas us - That passed the mouldering Pier - Just as the Granite Crumb let go - Our Savior, by a Hair - A second more, had dropped too deep For Fisherman to plumb - The very profile of the Thought Puts Recollection numb - The possibility - to pass Without a moment's Bell - Into Conjecture's presence - Is like a Face of Steel - That suddenly looks into our's With a metallic grin - The Cordiality of Death - Who drills his Welcome in - ___ Ah, Moon - and Star! You are very far - But were no one Farther than you - Do you think I'd stop For a Firmament - Or a Cubit - or so? I could borrow a Bonnet Of the Lark - And a Chamois' Silver Boot - And a stirrup of an Antelope - And be with you - tonight! But, Moon, and Star, Though you're very far - There is one - farther than you - He - is more than a firmament - from me - So I can never go! ___ Just so - Jesus - raps - He - does'nt weary - Last - at the Knocker - And first - at the Bell. Then - on divinest tiptoe - standing - Might He but spy the lady's soul - When He - retires - Chilled - or weary - It will be ample time for - me - Patient - upon the steps - until then - Heart! I am knocking - low at thee. ___ Forever at His side to walk - The smaller of the two! Brain of His Brain - Blood of His Blood - Two lives - One Being - now - Forever of His fate to taste - If grief - the largest part - If joy - to put my piece away For that beloved Heart - All life - to know each other - Whom we can never learn - And bye and bye - a Change - Called Heaven - Rapt neighborhoods of men - Just finding out - what puzzled us - Without the lexicon! ___ It cant be "Summer"! That - got through! It's early - yet - for "Spring"! There's that long town of White - to cross - Before the Blackbirds sing! It cant be "Dying"! It's too Rouge - The Dead shall go in white - So Sunset shuts my question down With Cuffs of Chrysolite! ___ What would I give to see his face? I'd give - I'd give my life - of course - But that is not enough! Stop just a minute - let me think! I'd give my biggest Bobolink! That makes two - Him - and Life! You know who "June" is - I'd give her - Roses a day from Zenzibar - And Lily tubes - like wells - Bees - by the furlong - Straits of Blue Navies of Butterflies - sailed thro' - And dappled Cowslip Dells - Then I have "shares" in Primrose "Banks" - Daffodil Dowries - spicy "Stocks" - Dominions - broad as Dew - Bags of Doubloons - adventurous Bees Brought me - from firmamental seas - And Purple - from Peru - Now - have I bought it - "Shylock"? Say! Sign me the Bond! "I vow to pay To Her - who pledges this - One hour - of her Sovreign's face"! Extatic Contract! Niggard Grace! My Kingdom's worth of Bliss! ___ Rearrange a "Wife's" Affection! When they dislocate my Brain! Amputate my freckled Bosom! Make me bearded like a man! Blush, my spirit, in thy Fastness - Blush, my unacknowledged clay - Seven years of troth have taught thee More than Wifehood every may! Love that never leaped it's socket - Trust intrenched in narrow pain - Constancy thro' fire - awarded - Anguish - bare of anodyne! Burden - borne so far triumphant - None suspect me of the crown, For I wear the "Thorns" till Sunset - Then - my Diadem put on. Big my Secret but it's bandaged - It will never get away Till the Day it's Weary Keeper Leads it through the Grave to thee. ___ Why - do they shut me out of Heaven? Did I sing - too loud? But - I can say a little "minor" Timid as a Bird! Would'nt the Angels try me - Just - once - more - Just - see - if I troubled them - But dont - shut the door! Oh, if I - were the Gentleman In the "White Robe" - And they - were the little Hand - that knocked - Could - I - forbid? ___ Wild nights - Wild nights! Were I with thee Wild nights should be Our luxury! Futile - the winds - To a Heart in port - Done with the Compass - Done with the Chart! Rowing in Eden - Ah, the Sea! Might I but moor - tonight - In thee! ___ I shall keep singing! Birds will pass me On their way to Yellower Climes - Each - with a Robin's expectation - I - with my Redbreast - And my Rhymes - Late - when I take my place in summer - But - I shall bring a fuller tune - Vespers - are sweeter than matins - Signor - Morning - only the seed - of noon - ___ Over the fence - Strawberries - grow - Over the fence - I could climb - if I tried, I know - Berries are nice! But - if I stained my Apron - God would certainly scold! Oh, dear, - I guess if He were a Boy - He'd - climb - if He could! ___