The Sun kept setting - setting - still No Hue of Afternoon - Upon the Village I perceived - From House to House 'twas Noon - The Dusk kept dropping - dropping - still No Dew upon the Grass - But only on my Forehead stopped - And wandered in my Face - My Feet kept drowsing - drowsing - still My fingers were awake - Yet why so little sound - Myself Unto my seeming - make? How well I knew the Light before - I could see it now - 'Tis Dying - I am doing - but I'm not afraid to know - ___ Shells from the Coast mistaking - I cherished them for All - Happening in After Ages To entertain a Pearl - Wherefore so late - I murmured - My need of Thee - be done - Therefore - the Pearl responded - My Period begin ___ The Heaven vests for Each In that small Deity It craved the grace to worship Some bashful Summer's Day - Half shrinking from the Glory It importuned to see Till these faint Tabernacles drop In full Eternity - How imminent the Venture - As One should sue a Star - For His mean sake to leave the Row And entertain Despair - A Clemency so common - We almost cease to fear - Enabling the minutest - And furthest - to adore - ___ The Spirit is the Conscious Ear - We actually Hear When We inspect - that's audible - That is admitted - Here - For other Services - as Sound - There hangs a minor Ear Outside the Castle - that Contain - The other - only - Hear - ___ If He were living - dare I ask - And how if He be dead - And so around the Words I went - Of meeting them - afraid - I hinted Changes - Lapse of Time - The Surfaces of Years - I touched with Caution - lest they crack - And show me to my fears - Reverted to adjoining Lives - Adroitly turning out Wherever I suspected Graves - 'Twas prudenter - I thought - And He - I pushed - with sudden force - In face of the Suspense - "Was buried" - "Buried"! "He!" My Life just holds the Trench - ___ As if the Sea should part And show a further Sea - And that - a further - and the Three But a Presumption be - Of Periods of Seas - Unvisited of Shores - Themselves the Verge of Seas to be - Eternity - is Those - ___ "Nature" is what We see - The Hill - the Afternoon - Squirrel - Eclipse - the Bumble bee - Nay - Nature is Heaven - "Nature" is what We hear - The Bobolink - the Sea - Thunder - the Cricket - Nay - Nature is Harmony - "Nature" is what We know - But have no Art to say - So impotent our Wisdom is To Her Sincerity - ___ Upon Concluded Lives There's nothing cooler falls - Than Life's sweet Calculations - The mixing Bells and Palls - Make Lacerating Tune - To Ears the Dying Side - 'Tis Coronal - and Funeral - Saluting - in the Road - ___ Have any like Myself Investigating March, New Houses on the Hill descried - And possibly a Church - That were not, We are sure - As lately as the Snow - And are Today - if We exist - Though how may this be so? Have any like Myself Conjectured Who may be The Occupants of the Adobes - So easy to the Sky - 'Twould seem that God should be The nearest Neighbor to - And Heaven - a convenient Grace For Show, or Company? Have any like Myself Preserved the Charm secure By shunning carefully the Place All Seasons of the Year, Excepting March - 'Tis then My Villages be seen - And possibly a Steeple - Not afterward - by Men - ___ Each Life converges to some Centre - Expressed - or still - Exists in every Human Nature A Goal - Admitted scarcely to itself - it may be - Too fair For Credibility's temerity To dare - Adored with caution - as a Brittle Heaven - To reach Were hopeless, as the Rainbow's Raiment To touch - Yet persevered toward - surer - for the Distance - How high - Unto the Saints' slow diligence - The Sky - Ungained - it may be - in a Life's low Venture - But then - Eternity enable the endeavoring Again. ___ Their Hight in Heaven comforts not - Their Glory - nought to me - 'Twas best imperfect - as it was - I'm finite - I cant see - The House of Supposition - The Glimmering Frontier that Skirts the Acres of Perhaps - To me - shows insecure - The Wealth I had - contented me - If 'twas a meaner size - Then I had counted it until It pleased my narrow Eyes - Better than larger values - That show however true - This timid life of Evidence Keeps pleading - "I dont know" - ___ I could bring You Jewels - had I a mind to - But You have enough - of those - I could bring You Odors from St Domingo - Colors - from Vera Cruz - Berries of the Bahamas - have I - But this little Blaze Flickering to itself - in the meadow - Suits me - more than those - Never a Fellow matched this Topaz - And his Emerald Swing - Dower itself - for Bobadillo - Better - Could I bring? ___ Life - is what we make it - Death - we do not know - Christ's acquaintance with Him Justify Him - though - He - would trust no stranger - Other - could betray - Just His own endorsement - That - sufficeth Me - All the other Distance He hath traversed first - No new mile remaineth - Far as Paradise - His sure foot preceding - Tender Pioneer - Base must be the Coward Dare not venture - now - ___ The Judge is like the Owl - I've heard my Father tell - And Owls do build in Oaks - So here's an Amber Sill - That slanted in my Path - When going to the Barn - And if it serve You for a House - Itself is not in vain - About the price - 'tis small - I only ask a Tune At Midnight - Let the Owl select His favorite Refrain. ___ The Props assist the House - Until the House is Built - And then the Props withdraw - And adequate - Erect - The House support itself - And cease to recollect The Scaffold and the Carpenter - Just such a Retrospect Hath the Perfected Life - A Past of Plank - and Nail - And Slowness - then the Stagings drop - Affirming it - A Soul - ___ You've seen Balloons set - Hav'nt You? So stately they ascend - It is as Swans - discarded You, For Duties Diamond - Their Liquid Feet go softly out Upon a Sea of Blonde - They spurn the Air, as 'twere too mean For Creatures so renowned - Their Ribbons just beyond the eye - They struggle - some - for Breath - And yet the Crowd applaud, below - They would not encore - Death - The Gilded Creature strains - and spins - Trips frantic in a Tree - Tears open her imperial Veins - And tumbles in the Sea - The Crowd - retire with an Oath - The Dust in Streets - go down - And Clerks in Counting Rooms Observe - "'Twas only a Balloon" - ___ The Zeroes taught Us - Phosphorus - We learned to like the Fire By handling Glaciers - when a Boy - And Tinder - guessed - by power Of Opposite - to equal Ought - Eclipses - Suns - imply - Paralysis - our Primer dumb Unto Vitality - ___ A Thought went up my mind today - That I have had before - But did not finish - some way back - I could not fix the Year - Nor where it went - nor why it came The second time to me - Nor definitely, what it was - Have I the Art to say - But somewhere - in my Soul - I know - I've met the Thing before - It just reminded me - 'twas all - And came my way no more - ___ The Love a Life can show Below Is but a filament, I know, Of that diviner thing That faints upon the face of Noon - And smites the Tinder in the Sun - And hinders Gabriel's Wing - 'Tis this - in Music - hints and sways - And far abroad on Summer days - Distils uncertain pain - 'Tis this enamors in the East - And tints the Transit in the West With harrowing Iodine - 'Tis this - invites - appalls - endows - Flits - glimmers - proves - dissolves - Returns - suggests - convicts - enchants - Then - flings in Paradise - ___ A first Mute Coming - In the Stranger's House - A first fair Going - When the Bells rejoice - A first Exchange - of What hath mingled - been - For Lot - exhibited to Faith - alone - ___ Out of sight? What of that? See the Bird - reach it! Curve by Curve - Sweep by Sweep - Round the Steep Air - Danger! What is that to Her? Better 'tis to fail - there - Than debate - here - Blue is Blue - the World through - Amber - Amber - Dew - Dew - Seek - Friend - and see - Heaven is shy of Earth - that's all - Bashful Heaven - thy Lovers small - Hide - too - from thee - ___ No matter - now - Sweet - But when I'm Earl - Wont you wish you'd spoken To that dull Girl? Trivial a Word - just - Trivial - a Smile - But wont you wish you'd spared one When I'm Earl? I shant need it - then - Crests - will do - Eagles on my Buckles - On my Belt - too - Ermine - my familiar Gown - Say - Sweet - then Wont you wish you'd smiled - just - Me upon? ___ The Moon was but a Chin of Gold A Night or two ago - And now she turns Her perfect Face Upon the World below - Her Forehead is of Amplest Blonde - Her Cheek - a Beryl hewn - Her Eye unto the Summer Dew The likest I have known - Her Lips of Amber never part - But what must be the smile Upon Her Friend she could confer Were such Her silver will - And what a privilege to be But the remotest Star - For Certainty she take Her way Beside Your glimmering Door - Her Bonnet is the Firmament - The Valleys - are Her Shoe - The Stars - the Trinkets at Her Belt - Her Dimities - of Blue - ___ You said that I "was Great" - one Day - Then "Great" it be - if that please Thee - Or Small - or any size at all - Nay - I'm the size suit Thee - Tall - like the Stag - would that? Or lower - like the Wren - Or other hights of other ones I've seen? Tell which - it's dull to guess - And I must be Rhinoceros Or Mouse At once - for Thee - So say - if Queen it be - Or Page - please Thee - I'm that - or nought - Or other thing - if other thing there be - With just this Stipulus - I suit Thee - ___ I many times thought Peace had come When Peace was far away - As Wrecked Men - deem they sight the Land - At Centre of the Sea - And struggle slacker - but to prove As hopelessly as I - How many the fictitious Shores - Or any Harbor be - ___