I know some lonely Houses off the Road A Robber'd like the look of - Wooden barred, And Windows hanging low, Inviting to - A Portico, Where two could creep - One - hand the Tools - The other peep - To make sure all's asleep - Old fashioned eyes - Not easy to surprise! How orderly the Kitchen'd look, by night, With just a Clock - But they could gag the Tick - And Mice wont bark - And so the Walls - dont tell - None - will - A pair of Spectacles ajar just stir - An Almanac's aware - Was it the Mat - winked, Or a nervous Star? The Moon - slides down the stair, To see who's there! There's plunder - where - Tankard, or Spoon - Earring - or Stone - A Watch - Some Ancient Brooch To match the Grandmama - Staid sleeping - there - Day - rattles - too - Stealth's - slow - The Sun has got as far As the third Sycamore - Screams Chanticleer "Who's there"? And Echoes - Trains away, Sneer - "Where"! While the old Couple, just astir, Fancy the Sunrise - left the door ajar! ___ I can wade Grief - Whole Pools of it - I'm used to that - But the least push of Joy Breaks up my feet - And I tip - drunken - Let no Pebble - smile - 'Twas the New Liquor - That was all! Power is only Pain - Stranded, thro' Discipline, Till Weights - will hang - Give Balm - to Giants - And they'll wilt, like Men - Give Himmaleh - They'll carry - Him! ___ You see I cannot see - your lifetime - I must guess - How many times it ache for me - today - Confess - How many times for my far sake The brave eyes film - But I guess guessing hurts - Mine - got so dim! Too vague - the face - My own - so patient - covers - Too far - the strength - My timidness enfolds - Haunting the Heart - Like her translated faces - Teasing the want - It - only - can suffice! ___ "Hope" is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul - And sings the tune without the 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. ___ To die - takes just a little while - They say it does'nt hurt - It's only fainter - by degrees - And then - it's out of sight - A darker Ribbon - for a Day - A Crape upon the Hat - And then the pretty sunshine comes - And helps us to forget - The absent - mystic - creature - That but for love of us - Had gone to sleep - that soundest time - Without the weariness - ___ If I'm lost - now - That I was found - Shall still my transport be - That once - on me - those Jasper Gates Blazed open - suddenly - That in my awkward - gazing - face - The Angels - softly peered - And touched me with their fleeces, Almost as if they cared - I'm banished - now - you know it - How foreign that can be - You'll know - Sir - when the Savior's face Turns so - away from you - ___ Delight is as the flight - Or in the Ratio of it, As the Schools would say - The Rainbow's way - A Skein Flung colored, after Rain, Would suit as bright, Except that flight Were Aliment - "If it would last" I asked the East, When that Bent Stripe Struck up my childish Firmament - And I, for glee, Took Rainbows, as the common way, And empty skies The Eccentricity - And so with Lives - And so with Butterflies - Seen magic - through the fright That they will cheat the sight - And Dower latitudes far on - Some sudden morn - Our portion - in the fashion - Done - ___ She sweeps with many-colored Brooms - And leaves the shreds behind - Oh Housewife in the Evening West - Come back - and dust the Pond! You dropped a Purple Ravelling in - You dropped an Amber Thread - And now you've littered all the East With Duds of Emerald! And still, she plies her spotted Brooms - And still the Aprons fly, Till Brooms fade softly into stars - And then I come away - ___ Of Bronze - and Blaze - The North - tonight - So adequate - it forms - So preconcerted with itself - So distant - to alarms - And Unconcern so sovreign To Universe, or me - Infects my simple spirit With Taints of Majesty - Till I take vaster attitudes - And strut upon my stem - Disdaining Men, and Oxygen, For Arrogance of them - My Splendors, are Menagerie - But their Completeless Show Will entertain the Centuries When I, am long ago, An Island in dishonored Grass - Whom none but Daisies, know. ___ There's a certain Slant of light, Winter Afternoons - That oppresses, like the Heft Of Cathedral Tunes - Heavenly Hurt, it gives us - We can find no scar, But internal difference, Where the Meanings, are - None may teach it - Any - 'Tis the Seal Despair - An imperial affliction Sent us of the Air - When it comes, the Landscape listens - Shadows - hold their breath - When it goes, 'tis like the Distance On the look of Death - ___ Blazing in Gold - and Quenching - in Purple! Leaping - like Leopards - to the sky - Then - at the feet of the old Horizon - Laying it's spotted face - to die! Stooping as low as the kitchen window - Touching the Roof - And tinting the Barn - Kissing it's Bonnet to the Meadow - And the Juggler of Day - is gone! ___ Good Night! Which put the Candle out? A jealous Zephyr - not a doubt - Ah, friend, you little knew How long at that celestial wick The Angels - labored diligent - Extinguished - now - for you! It might - have been the Light House spark - Some Sailor - rowing in the Dark - Had importuned to see! It might - have been the Waning lamp That lit the Drummer from the Camp To purer Reveille! ___ Read - Sweet - how others - strove - Till we - are stouter - What they - renounced - Till we - are less afraid - How many times they - bore the faithful witness - Till we - are helped - As if a Kingdom - cared! Read then - of faith - That shone above the fagot - Clear strains of Hymn The River could not drown - Brave names of Men - And Celestial Women - Passed out - of Record Into - Renown! ___ Put up my lute! What of - my Music! Since the sole ear I cared to charm - Passive - as Granite - laps my music - Sobbing - will suit - as well as psalm! Would but the "Memnon" of the Desert - Teach me the strain That vanquished Him - When He - surrendered to the Sunrise - Maybe - that - would awaken - them! ___ There came a Day at Summer's full, Entirely for me - I thought that such were for the Saints, Where Resurrections - be - The Sun, as common, went abroad, The flowers, accustomed, blew, As if no soul the solstice passed That maketh all things new - The time was scarce profaned, by speech - The symbol of a word Was needless, as at Sacrament, The Wardrobe, of our Lord - Each was to each The Sealed Church, Permitted to commune this - time - Lest we too awkward show At Supper of the Lamb. The Hours slid fast - as Hours will, Clutched tight, by greedy hands - So faces on two Decks, look back, Bound to opposing lands - And so when all the time had leaked, Without external sound Each bound the Other's Crucifix - We gave no other Bond - Sufficient Troth, that we shall rise - Deposed - at length, the Grave - To that new Marriage, Justified - through Calvaries - of Love - ___ The lonesome for they know not What - The Eastern Exiles - be - Who strayed beyond the Amber line Some madder Holiday - And ever since - the purple Moat They strive to climb - in vain - As Birds - that tumble from the clouds Do fumble at the strain - The Blessed Ether - taught them - Some Transatlantic Morn - When Heaven - was too common - to miss - Too sure - to dote upon! ___ How the old Mountains drip with Sunset How the Hemlocks burn - How the Dun Brake is draped in Cinder By the Wizard Sun - How the old Steeples hand the Scarlet Till the Ball is full - Have I the lip of the Flamingo That I dare to tell? Then, how the Fire ebbs like Billows - Touching all the Grass With a departing - Sapphire - feature - As a Duchess passed - How a small Dusk crawls on the Village Till the Houses blot And the odd Flambeau, no men carry Glimmer on the Street - How it is Night - in Nest and Kennel - And where was the Wood - Just a Dome of Abyss is Bowing Into Solitude - These are the Visions flitted Guido - Titian - never told - Domenichino dropped his pencil - Paralyzed, with Gold - ___ Of Tribulation - these are They, Denoted by the White. The Spangled Gowns, a lesser Rank Of Victors, designate - All these - did conquer - But the Ones who overcame most times - Wear nothing commoner than Snow - No Ornament - but Palms - "Surrender" - is a sort unknown On this superior soil - "Defeat", an Outgrown Anguish, Remembered, as the Mile Our panting Ancle barely passed, When Night devoured the Road - But we - stood - whispering in the House - And all we said - was Saved! ___ If your Nerve, deny you - Go above your Nerve - He can lean against the Grave, If he fear to swerve - That's a steady posture - Never any bend Held of those Brass arms - Best Giant made - If your Soul seesaw - Lift the Flesh door - The Poltroon wants Oxygen - Nothing more - ___