I dreaded that first Robin, so, But He is mastered, now, I'm some accustomed to Him grown, He hurts a little, though - I thought if I could only live Till that first Shout got by - Not all Pianos in the Woods Had power to mangle me - I dared not meet the Daffodils - For fear their Yellow Gown Would pierce me with a fashion So foreign to my own - I wished the Grass would hurry - So when 'twas time to see - He'd be too tall, the tallest one Could stretch to look at me - I could not bear the Bees should come, I wished they'd stay away In those dim countries where they go, What word had they, for me? They're here, though; not a creature failed - No Blossom stayed away In gentle deference to me - The Queen of Calvary - Each one salutes me, as he goes, And I, my childish Plumes, Lift, in bereaved acknowledgement Of their unthinking Drums - ___ I would not paint - a picture - I'd rather be the One It's bright impossibility To dwell - delicious - on - And wonder how the fingers feel Whose rare - celestial - stir - Evokes so sweet a torment - Such sumptuous - Despair - I would not talk, like Cornets - I'd rather be the One Raised softly to Horizons - And out, and easy on - Through Villages of Ether - Myself upborne Balloon By but a lip of Metal - The pier to my Pontoon - Nor would I be a Poet - It's finer - own the Ear - Enamored - impotent - content - The License to revere, A privilege so awful What would the Dower be, Had I the Art to stun myself With Bolts - of Melody! ___ He touched me, so I live to know That such a day, Accepted so - I dwelt - upon his breast - It was a boundless place to me And silenced, as the awful Sea Puts minor streams to rest. And now, I'm different from before, As if I breathed superior air - Or brushed a Royal Gown - My feet, too, that had wandered so - My Gypsy face - transfigured now - To tenderer Renown - Into this Port, if I might come, Rebecca, to Jerusalem, Would not so ravished turn - Nor Persian, baffled at her shrine Lift such a Crucifixal sign To her imperial Sun. ___ I had the Glory - that will do - An Honor, Thought can turn her to When lesser Fames invite - With one long "Nay" - Bliss' early shape Deforming - Dwindling - Gulfing up - Time's possibility. ___ She sights a Bird - she chuckles - She flattens - then she crawls - She runs without the look of feet - Her eyes increase to Balls - Her Mouth stirs - longing - hungry - Her Teeth can hardly stand - She leaps, but Robin leaped the first - Ah, Pussy, of the Sand, The Hopes so juicy ripening - You almost bathed your Tongue - When Bliss disclosed a hundred Wings - And fled with every one - ___ They leave us with the Infinite. But He - is not a man - His fingers are the size of fists - His fists, the size of men - And whom he foundeth, with his Arm As Himmaleh, shall stand - Gibraltar's Everlasting Shoe Poised lightly on his Hand, So trust him, Comrade - You for you, and I, for you and - me Eternity is ample, And quick enough, if true. ___ I'm ceded - I've stopped being Their's - The name They dropped upon my face With water, in the country church Is finished using, now, And They can put it with my Dolls, My childhood, and the string of spools, I've finished threading - too - Baptized, before, without the choice, But this time, consciously, of Grace - Unto supremest name - Called to my Full - The Crescent dropped - Existence's whole Arc, filled up, With one - small Diadem - My second Rank - too small the first - Crowned - whimpering - on my Father's breast - A too unconscious Queen - But this time - Adequate - Erect, With power to choose, Or to reject, And I choose, just a Crown - ___ If Anybody's friend be dead It's sharpest of the theme The thinking how they walked alive - At such and such a time - Their costume, of a Sunday, Some manner of the Hair - A prank nobody knew but them Lost, in the Sepulchre - How warm, they were, on such a day, You almost feel the date - So short way off it seems - And now - they're Centuries from that - How pleased they were, at what you said! You try to touch the smile And dip your fingers in the frost - When was it - Can you tell - You asked the Company to tea - Acquaintance - just a few - And chatted close with this Grand Thing That dont remember you - Past Bows, and Invitations - Past Interview, and Vow - Past what Ourself can estimate - That - makes the Quick of Woe! ___ It was not Death, for I stood up, And all the Dead, lie down - It was not Night, for all the Bells Put out their Tongues, for Noon. It was not Frost, for on my Flesh I felt Siroccos - crawl - Nor Fire - for just my marble feet Could keep a Chancel, cool - And yet, it tasted, like them all, The Figures I have seen Set orderly, for Burial, Reminded me, of mine - As if my life were shaven, And fitted to a frame, And could not breathe without a key, And 'twas like Midnight, some - When everything that ticked - has stopped - And Space stares all around - Or Grisly frosts - first Autumn morns, Repeal the Beating Ground - But, most, like Chaos - Stopless - cool - Without a Chance, or Spar - Or even a Report of Land - To justify - Despair. ___ If you were coming in the Fall, I'd brush the Summer by With half a smile, and half a spurn, As Housewives do, a Fly. If I could see you in a year, I'd wind the months in balls - And put them each in separate Drawers, For fear the numbers fuse - If only Centuries, delayed, I'd count them on my Hand, Subtracting, till my fingers dropped Into Van Dieman's Land. If certain, when this life was out - That your's and mine, should be - I'd toss it yonder, like a Rind, And take Eternity - But, now, uncertain of the length Of this, that is between, It goads me, like the Goblin Bee - That will not state - it's sting. ___ I felt my life with both my hands To see if it was there - I held my spirit to the Glass, To prove it possibler - I turned my Being round and round And paused at every pound To ask the Owner's name - For doubt, that I should know the Sound - I judged my features - jarred my hair - I pushed my dimples by, and waited - If they - twinkled back - Conviction might, of me - I told myself, "Take Courage, Friend - That - was a former time - But we might learn to like the Heaven, As well as our Old Home!" ___ Perhaps I asked too large - I take - no less than skies - For Earths, grow thick as Berries, in my native town - My Basket holds - just - Firmaments - Those - dangle easy - on my arm, But smaller bundles - Cram. ___ A Bird came down the Walk - He did not know I saw - He bit an Angleworm in halves And ate the fellow, raw, And then he drank a Dew From a convenient Grass - And then hopped sidewise to the Wall To let a Beetle pass - He glanced with rapid eyes That hurried all around - They looked like frightened Beads, I thought - He stirred his Velvet Head Like one in danger, Cautious, I offered him a Crumb And he unrolled his feathers And rowed him softer home - Than Oars divide the Ocean, Too silver for a seam - Or Butterflies, off Banks of Noon Leap, plashless as they swim. ___ The Soul has Bandaged moments - When too appalled to stir - She feels some ghastly Fright come up And stop to look at her - Salute her, with long fingers - Caress her freezing hair - Sip, Goblin, from the very lips The Lover - hovered - o'er - Unworthy, that a thought so mean Accost a Theme - so - fair - The soul has moments of Escape - When bursting all the doors - She dances like a Bomb, abroad, And swings upon the Hours, As do the Bee - delirious borne - Long Dungeoned from his Rose - Touch Liberty - then know no more, But Noon, and Paradise - The Soul's retaken moments - When, Felon led along, With shackles on the plumed feet, And staples, in the Song, The Horror welcomes her, again, These, are not brayed of Tongue - ___ Like Flowers, that heard the news of Dews, But never deemed the dripping prize Awaited their - low Brows - Or Bees - that thought the Summer's name Some rumor of Delirium, No Summer - could - for Them - Or Arctic Creatures, dimly stirred - By Tropic Hint - some Travelled Bird Imported to the Wood - Or Wind's bright signal to the Ear - Making that homely, and severe, Contented, known, before - The Heaven - unexpected come, To Lives that thought the Worshipping A too presumptuous Psalm - ___