It sifts from Leaden Sieves - It powders all the Wood. It fills with Alabaster Wool The Wrinkles of the Road - It makes an even Face Of Mountain, and of Plain - Unbroken Forehead from the East Unto the East again - It reaches to the Fence - It wraps it Rail by Rail Till it is lost in Fleeces - It deals Celestial Vail To Stump, and Stack - and Stem - A Summer's empty Room - Acres of Joints, where Harvests were, Recordless, but for them - It Ruffles Wrists of Posts As Ankles of a Queen - Then stills it's Artisans - like Ghosts - Denying they have been - ___ Like Mighty Foot Lights - burned the Red At Bases of the Trees - The far Theatricals of Day Exhibiting - to These - 'Twas Universe - that did applaud - While Chiefest - of the Crowd - Enabled by his Royal Dress - Myself distinguished God - ___ A Pit - but Heaven over it - And Heaven beside, and Heaven abroad; And yet a Pit - With Heaven over it. To stir would be to slip - To look would be to drop - To dream - to sap the Prop That holds my chances up. Ah! Pit! With Heaven over it! The depth is all my thought - I dare not ask my feet - 'Twould start us where we sit So straight you'd scarce suspect It was a Pit - with fathoms under it It's Circuit just the same Whose Doom to whom 'Twould start them - We - could tremble - But since we got a Bomb - And held it in our Bosom - Nay - Hold it - it is calm - ___ A curious Cloud surprised the Sky, 'Twas like a sheet with Horns; The sheet was Blue - The Antlers Gray - It almost touched the Lawns. So low it leaned - then statelier drew - And trailed like robes away; A Queen adown a satin aisle, Had not the majesty. ___ Of Brussels - it was not - Of Kidderminster? Nay - The Winds did buy it of the Woods - They - sold it unto me It was a gentle price - The poorest - could afford - It was within the frugal purse Of Beggar - or of Bird - Of small and spicy Breadths - In hue - a mellow Dun - Of Sunshine - and of Sere - Composed - But, principally - of Sun - The Wind - unrolled it fast - And spread it on the Ground - Upholsterer of the Pines - is He - Upholsterer - of the Pond - ___ He found my Being - set it up - Adjusted it to place - Then carved his name - upon it - And bade it to the East Be faithful - in his absence - And he would come again - With Equipage of Amber - That time - to take it Home - ___ Unto my Books - so good to turn - Far ends of tired Days - It half endears the Abstinence - And Pain - is missed - in Praise - As Flavors - cheer Retarded Guests With Banquettings to be - So Spices - stimulate the time Till my small Library - It may be Wilderness - without - Far feet of failing Men - But Holiday - excludes the night - And it is Bells - within - I thank these Kinsmen of the Shelf - Their Countenances Kid Enamor - in Prospective - And satisfy - obtained - ___ The Spider holds a Silver Ball In unperceived Hands - And dancing softly as He knits His Coil of Pearl - unwinds - He plies from nought to nought - In unsubstantial Trade - Supplants our Tapestries with His - In half the period - An Hour to rear supreme His Theories of Light - Then dangle from the Housewife's Broom - His Sophistries - forgot - ___ Three times - we parted - Breath - and I - Three times - He would not go - But strove to stir the flickering fan The Waters - strove to stay. Three Times - the Billows threw me up - Then caught me - like a Ball - Then made Blue faces in my face - And pushed away a sail That crawled Leagues off - I liked to see - For thinking - While I die - How pleasant to behold a Thing Where Human faces - be - The Waves grew sleepy - Breath - did not - The Winds - like Children - lulled - Then Sunrise kissed my Chrysalis - And I stood up - and lived - ___ There is a pain - so utter - It swallows Being up - Then covers the Abyss with Trance - So Memory can step Around - across - upon it - As One within a Swoon - Goes safely - where an open eye - Would drop Him - Bone by Bone - ___ It troubled me as once I was - For I was once a Child - Concluding how an atom - fell - And yet the Heavens - held - The Heavens weighed the most - by far - Yet Blue - and solid - stood - Without a Bolt - that I could prove - Might Giants - understand? Life set me larger - problems - Some I shall keep - to solve Till Algebra is easier - Or simpler proved - above - Then - too - be comprehended - What sorer - puzzled me - Why Heaven did not break away - And tumble - Blue - on me - ___ A still - Volcano - Life - That flickered in the night - When it was dark enough to do Without erasing sight - A quiet - Earthquake Style - Too subtle to suspect By natures this side Naples - The North cannot detect The Solemn - Torrid - Symbol - The lips that never lie - Whose hissing Corals part - and shut - And Cities - ooze away - ___ When I was small, a Woman died - Today - her Only Boy Went up from the Potomac - His face all Victory To look at her - How slowly The Seasons must have turned Till Bullets clipt an Angle And He passed quickly round - If pride shall be in Paradise - Ourself cannot decide - Of their imperial conduct - No person testified - But, proud in Apparition - That Woman and her Boy Pass back and forth, before my Brain As even in the sky - I'm confident that Bravoes - Perpetual break abroad For Braveries, remote as this In Yonder Maryland - ___ This is my letter to the World That never wrote to Me - The simple News that Nature told - With tender Majesty Her Message is committed To Hands I cannot see - For love of Her - Sweet - countrymen - Judge tenderly - of Me ___ God made a little Gentian - It tried - to be a Rose - And failed - and all the Summer laughed - But just before the Snows There rose a Purple Creature - That ravished all the Hill - And Summer hid her Forehead - And Mockery - was still - The Frosts were her condition - The Tyrian would not come Until the North - invoke it - Creator - Shall I - bloom? ___ My Reward for Being - was This - My premium - My Bliss - An Admiralty, less - A Sceptre - penniless - And Realms - just Dross. When Thrones - accost my Hands - With "Me - Miss - Me" - I'll unroll - Thee - Sufficient Dynasty - Creation - powerless - To Peer this Grace - Empire - State - Too little - Dust - To Dower - so Great - ___ It always felt to me - a wrong To that Old Moses - done - To let him see - the Canaan - Without the entering - And tho' in soberer moments - No Moses there can be I'm satisfied - the Romance In point of injury - Surpasses sharper stated - Of Stephen - or of Paul - For these - were only put to death - While God's adroiter will On Moses - seemed to fasten In tantalizing Play As Boy - should deal with lesser Boy - To show supremacy - The fault - was doubtless Israel's - Myself - had banned the Tribes - And ushered Grand Old Moses In Pentateuchal Robes Upon the Broad Possession 'Twas little - He should see - Old Man on Nebo! Late as this - My justice bleeds - for Thee! ___ I tie my Hat - I crease my Shawl - Life's little duties do - precisely - As the very least Were infinite - to me - I put new Blossoms in the Glass - And throw the Old - away - I push a petal from my Gown That anchored there - I weigh The time 'twill be till six o'clock - So much I have to do - And yet - existence - some way back - Stopped - struck - my ticking - through - We cannot put Ourself away As a completed Man Or Woman - When the errand's done We came to Flesh - upon - There may be - Miles on Miles of Nought - Of Action - sicker far - To simulate - is stinging work - To cover what we are From Science - and from Surgery - Too Telescopic eyes To bear on us unshaded - For their - sake - Not for Our's - Therefore - we do life's labor - Though life's Reward - be done - With scrupulous exactness - To hold our Senses - on - ___ The Trees like Tassels - hit - and swung - There seemed to rise a Tune From Miniature Creatures Accompanying the Sun - Far Psalteries of Summer - Enamoring the Ear They never yet did satisfy - Remotest - when most fair The Sun shone whole at intervals - Then Half - then utter hid - As if Himself were optional And had Estates of Cloud Sufficient to enfold Him Eternally from view - Except it were a whim of His To let the Orchards grow - A Bird sat careless on the fence - One gossipped in the Lane On silver matters charmed a Snake Just winding round a Stone - Bright Flowers slit a Calyx And soared upon a Stem Like Hindered Flags - Sweet hoisted - With Spices - in the Hem - 'Twas more - I cannot mention - How mean - to those that see - Vandyke's Delineation Of Nature's - Summer Day! ___ It feels a shame to be Alive - When Men so brave - are dead - One envies the Distinguished Dust - Permitted - such a Head - The Stone - that tells defending Whom This Spartan put away What little of Him we - possessed In Pawn for Liberty - The price is great - Sublimely paid - Do we deserve - a Thing - That lives - like Dollars - must be piled Before we may obtain? Are we that wait - sufficient worth - That such Enormous Pearl As life - dissolved be - for Us - In Battle's - horrid Bowl? It may be - a Renown to live - I think the Man who die - Those unsustained - Saviors - Present Divinity - ___