A precious - mouldering pleasure - 'tis - To meet an Antique Book - In just the Dress his Century wore - A privilege - I think - His venerable Hand to take - And warming in our own - A passage back - or two - to make - To Times when he - was young - His quaint opinions - to inspect - His thought to ascertain On Themes concern our mutual mind - The Literature of Man - What interested Scholars - most - What Competitions ran - When Plato - was a Certainty - And Sophocles - a Man - When Sappho - was a living Girl - And Beatrice wore The Gown that Dante - deified - Facts Centuries before He traverses - familiar - As One should come to Town - And tell you all your Dreams - were true - He lived - where Dreams were born - His presence is Enchantment - You beg him not to go - Old Volumes shake their Vellum Heads And tantalize - just so - ___ I tried to think a lonelier Thing Than any I had seen - Some Polar Expiation - An Omen in the Bone Of Death's tremendous nearness - I probed Retrieveless things My Duplicate - to borrow - A Haggard Comfort springs From the belief that Somewhere - Within the Clutch of Thought - There dwells one other Creature Of Heavenly Love - forgot - I plucked at our Partition - As One should pry the Walls - Between Himself - and Horror's Twin - Within Opposing Cells - I almost strove to clasp his Hand, Such Luxury - it grew - That as Myself - could pity Him - He - too - could pity me - ___ Two Butterflies went out at Noon - And waltzed upon a Farm - Then stepped straight through the Firmament And rested, on a Beam - And then - together bore away Upon a shining Sea - Though never yet, in any Port - Their coming, mentioned - be - If spoken by the distant Bird - If met in Ether Sea By Frigate, or by Merchantman - No notice - was - to me - ___ The Day came slow - till Five o'clock - Then sprang before the Hills Like Hindered Rubies - or the Light A Sudden Musket - spills - The Purple could not keep the East - The Sunrise shook abroad Like Breadths of Topaz - packed a Night - The Lady just unrolled - The Happy Winds - their Timbrels took - The Birds - in docile Rows Arranged themselves around their Prince The Wind - is Prince of Those - The Orchard sparkled like a Jew - How mighty 'twas - to be A Guest in this stupendous place - The Parlor - of the Day - ___ It was a quiet Way - He asked if I was His - I made no answer of the Tongue, But answer of the Eyes - And then he bore me high Before this mortal noise With swiftness as of Chariots - And distance - as of Wheels - The World did drop away As Counties - from the feet Of Him that leaneth in Balloon - Upon an Ether Street - The Gulf behind - was not - The Continents - were new - Eternity - it was - before Eternity was due - No Seasons were - to us - It was not Night - nor Noon - For Sunrise - stopped upon the Place - And fastened it - in Dawn - ___ I know lives, I could miss Without a Misery - Others - whose instant's wanting - Would be Eternity - The last - a scanty Number - 'Twould scarcely fill a Two - The first - a Gnat's Horizon Could easily outgrow - ___ I'm saying every day "If I should be a Queen, Tomorrow" - I'd do this way - And so I deck, a little, If it be, I wake a Bourbon, None on me - bend supercilious - With "This was she - Begged in the Market place - Yesterday." Court is a stately place - I've heard men say - So I loop my apron - against the Majesty With bright Pins of Buttercup - That not too plain - Rank - overtake me - And perch my Tongue On Twigs of singing - rather high - But this, might be my brief Term To qualify - Put from my simple speech all plain word - Take other accents, as such I heard Though but for the Cricket - just, And but for the Bee - Not in all the Meadow - One accost me - Better to be ready - Than did next Morn Meet me in Arragon - My old Gown - on - And the surprised Air Rustics - wear - Summoned - unexpectedly - To Exeter - ___ The difference between Despair And Fear - is like the One Between the instant of a Wreck And when the Wreck has been - The Mind is smooth - no Motion - Contented as the Eye Upon the Forehead of a Bust - That knows - it cannot see - ___ I went to Heaven - 'Twas a small Town - Lit - with a Ruby - Lathed - with Down - Stiller - than the fields At the full Dew - Beautiful - as Pictures - No Man drew - People - like the Moth - Of Mechlin - frames - Duties - of Gossamer - And Eider - names - Almost - contented - I - could be - 'Mong such unique Society - ___ The Angle of a Landscape - That every time I wake - Between my Curtain and the Wall Upon an ample Crack - Like a Venetian - waiting - Accosts my open eye - Is just a Bough of Apples - Held slanting, in the Sky - The Pattern of a Chimney - The Forehead of a Hill - Sometimes - a Vane's Forefinger - But that's - Occasional - The Seasons - shift - my Picture - Upon my Emerald Bough, I wake - to find no - Emeralds - Then - Diamonds - which the Snow From Polar Caskets - fetched me - The Chimney - and the Hill - And just the Steeple's finger - These - never stir at all - ___ The Soul unto itself Is an imperial friend - Or the most agonizing Spy - An Enemy - could send - Secure against it's own - No treason it can fear - Itself - it's Sovreign - Of itself The Soul should stand in ___ We see - Comparatively - The Thing so towering high We could not grasp it's segment Unaided - Yesterday - This Morning's finer Verdict - Makes scarcely worth the toil - A furrow - Our Cordillera - Our Apennine - a knoll - Perhaps 'tis kindly - done us - The Anguish - and the loss - The wrenching - for His Firmament The Thing belonged to us - To spare these striding spirits Some Morning of Chagrin - The waking in a Gnat's - embrace - Our Giants - further on - ___ Of Course - I prayed - And did God Care? He cared as much as on the Air A Bird - had stamped her foot - And cried "Give Me" - My Reason - Life - I had not had - but for Yourself - 'Twere better Charity To leave me in the Atom's Tomb - Merry, and nought, and gay, and numb - Than this smart Misery. ___ I'm sorry for the Dead - Today - It's such congenial times Old neighbors have at fences - It's time o'year for Hay, And Broad - Sunburned Acquaintance Discourse between the Toil - And laugh, a homely species That makes the Fences smile - It seems so straight to lie away From all of the noise of Fields - The Busy Carts - the fragrant Cocks - The Mower's metre - Steals - A Trouble lest they're homesick - Those Farmers - and their Wives - Set separate from the Farming - And all the Neighbor's lives - A Wonder if the Sepulchre Dont feel a lonesome way - When Men - and Boys - and Carts - and June, Go down the Fields to "Hay" - ___ You cannot put a Fire out - A Thing that can ignite Can go, itself, without a Fan - Upon the slowest night - You cannot fold a Flood - And put it in a Drawer - Because the Winds would find it out - And tell your Cedar Floor - ___ We dream - it is good we are dreaming - It would hurt us - were we awake - But since it is playing - kill us, And we are playing - shriek - What harm? Men die - externally - It is a truth - of Blood - But we - are dying in Drama - And Drama - is never dead - Cautious - We jar each other - And either - open the eyes - Lest the Phantasm - prove the Mistake - And the livid Surprise Cool us to Shafts of Granite - With just an age - and name - And perhaps a latin inscription - It's prudenter - to dream - ___ If ever the lid gets off my head And lets the brain away The fellow will go where he belonged - Without a hint from me, And the world - if the world be looking on - Will see how far from home It is possible for sense to live The soul there - all the time. ___ Some say good night - at night - I say good night by day - Good bye - the Going utter me - Good night, I still reply - For parting, that is night, And presence, simply dawn - Itself, the purple on the hight Denominated morn. ___ She's happy, with a new Content - That feels to her - like Sacrament - She's busy - with an altered Care - As just apprenticed to the Air - She's tearful - if she weep at all - For blissful Causes - Most of all That Heaven permit so meek as her - To such a Fate - to Minister - ___ The Heart asks Pleasure - first - And then - Excuse from Pain - And then - those little Anodyness That deaden suffering - And then - to go to sleep - And then - if it should be The will of it's Inquisitor The privilege to die - ___