The nearest Dream recedes - unrealized - The Heaven we chase - Like the June Bee - before the School Boy - Invites the Race - Stoops - to an easy Clover - Dips - evades - teazes - deploys - Then - to the Royal Clouds Lifts his light Pinnace - Heedless of the Boy - Staring - bewildered - at the mocking sky - Homesick for steadfast Honey - Ah - the Bee flies not That brews that rare variety! ___ What if I say I shall not wait! What if I burst the fleshly Gate - And pass escaped - to thee! What if I file this mortal - off - See where it hurt me - That's enough - And step in Liberty! They cannot take me - any more! Dungeons can call - and Guns implore Unmeaning - now - to me - As laughter - was - an hour ago - Or Laces - or a Travelling Show - Or who died - yesterday! ___ 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! ___ A Shady friend - for Torrid days - Is easier to find - Than one of higher temperature For Frigid - hour of mind - The Vane a little to the East - Scares Muslin souls - away - If Broadcloth Hearts are firmer - Than those of Organdy - Who is to blame? The Weaver? Ah, the bewildering thread! The Tapestries of Paradise So notelessly - are made! ___ A solemn thing - it was - I said - A woman - white - to be - And wear - if God should count me fit - Her blameless mystery - A hallowed thing - to drop a life Into the purple well - Too plummetless - that it return - Eternity - until - I pondered how the bliss would look - And would it feel as big - When I could take it in my hand - As hovering - seen - through fog - And then - the size of this "small" life - The Sages - call it small - Swelled - like Horizons - in my vest - And I sneered - softly - "small"! ___ I breathed enough to take the Trick - And now, removed from Air - I simulate the Breath, so well - That One, to be quite sure - The Lungs are stirless - must descend Among the cunning cells - And touch the Pantomime - Himself, How cool, the Bellows feels! ___ Kill your Balm - and it's Odors bless you - Bare your Jessamine - to the storm - And she will fling her maddest perfume - Haply - your Summer night to Charm - Stab the Bird - that built in your bosom - Oh, could you catch her last Refrain - Bubble! "forgive" - "Some better" - Bubble! "Carol for Him - when I am gone"! ___ "Heaven" - is what I cannot reach! The Apple on the Tree - Provided it do hopeless - hang - That - "Heaven" is - to Me! The color, on the cruising cloud - The interdicted Land - Behind the Hill - the House behind - There - Paradise - is found! Her teazing Purples - Afternoons - The credulous - decoy - Enamored - of the Conjuror - That spurned us - Yesterday! ___ 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. ___ Inconceivably solemn! Things so gay Pierce - by the very Press Of Imagery - Their far Parades - order on the eye With a mute Pomp - A pleading Pageantry - Flags, are a brave sight - But no true Eye Ever went by One - Steadily - Music's triumphant - But a fine Ear Winces with delight Are Drums too near - ___ More Life - went out - when He went Than Ordinary Breath - Lit with a finer Phosphor - Requiring in the Quench - A Power of Renowned Cold, The Climate of the Grave A Temperature just adequate So Anthracite, to live - For some - an Ampler Zero - A Frost more needle keen Is nescessary, to reduce The Ethiop within. Others - extinguish easier - A Gnat's minutest Fan Sufficient to obliterate A Tract of Citizen - Whose Peat life - amply vivid - Ignores the solemn News That Popocatapel exists - Or Etna's Scarlets, Choose - ___ The Months have ends - the Years - a knot - No Power can untie To stretch a little further A Skein of Misery - The Earth lays back these tired lives In her mysterious Drawers - Too tenderly, that any doubt An ultimate Repose - The manner of the Children - Who weary of the Day - Themself - the noisy Plaything They cannot put away - ___ Removed from Accident of Loss By Accident of Gain Befalling not my simple Days - Myself had just to earn - Of Riches - as unconscious As is the Brown Malay Of Pearls in Eastern Waters - Marked His - What Holiday Would stir his slow conception - Had he the power to dream That but the Dower's fraction - Awaited even - Him - ___ Your Riches - taught me - Poverty. Myself - a Millionaire In little Wealths, as Girls could boast - Till broad as Buenos Ayre - You drifted your Dominions - A Different Peru - And I esteemed all Poverty For Life's Estate with you - Of Mines, I little know, myself - But just the names, of Gems - The Colors of the Commonest - And scarce of Diadems - So much, that did I meet the Queen - Her Glory I should know - But this, must be a different Wealth - To miss it - beggars so - I'm sure 'tis India - all Day - To those who look on You - Without a stint - without a blame, Might I - but be the Jew - I'm sure it is Golconda - Beyond my power to deem - To have a smile for mine - each Day, How better, than a Gem! At least, it solaces to know That there exists - a Gold - Altho' I prove it, just in time It's distance - to behold - It's far - far Treasure to surmise - And estimate the Pearl - That slipped my simple fingers through - While just a Girl at School. ___ A Toad, can die of Light - Death is the Common Right Of Toads and Men - Of Earl and Midge The privilege - Why swagger, then? The Gnat's supremacy is large as Thine - Life - is a different Thing - So measure Wine - Naked of Flask - Naked of Cask - Bare Rhine - Which Ruby's mine? ___ There are two Ripenings - one - of sight - Whose forces Spheric wind Until the Velvet product Drop spicy to the ground - A homelier maturing - A process in the Bur - That teeth of Frosts alone disclose In far October Air. ___ It ceased to hurt me, though so slow I could not see the trouble go - But only knew by looking back - That something - had obscured the Track - Nor when it altered, I could say, For I had worn it, every day, As constant as the Childish frock - I hung upon the Peg, at night. But not the Grief - that nestled Close As Needles - ladies softly press To Cushions Cheeks - To keep their place - Nor what consoled it, I could trace - Except, whereas 'twas Wilderness - It's better - almost Peace - ___ Give little Anguish, Lives will fret - Give Avalanches, And they'll slant - Straighten - look cautious for their breath - But make no syllable, like Death - Who only shows his Granite face - Sublimer thing - than Speech - ___