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Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete
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Third Series
It's all I have to bring to-day, This, and my heart beside,This, and my heart, and all the fields, And all the meadows wide.Be sure you count, should I forget, — Some one the sum could tell, —This, and my heart, and all the bees Which in the clover dwell.PREFACEThe intellectual activity of Emily Dickinson was so great that a large and characteristic choice is still possible among her literary material, and this third volume of her verses is put forth in response to the repeated wish of the admirers of her peculiar genius. Much of Emily Dickinson's prose was rhythmic, —even rhymed, though frequently not set apart in lines.
Also many verses, written as such, were sent to friends in letters; these were published in 1894, in the volumes of her Letters. It has not been necessary, however, to include them in this Series, and all have been omitted, except three or four exceptionally strong ones, as "A Book," and "With Flowers."
There is internal evidence that many of the poems were simply spontaneous flashes of insight, apparently unrelated to outward circumstance. Others, however, had an obvious personal origin; for example, the verses "I had a Guinea golden," which seem to have been sent to some friend travelling in Europe, as a dainty reminder of letter-writing delinquencies. The surroundings in which any of Emily Dickinson's verses are known to have been written usually serve to explain them clearly; but in general the present volume is full of thoughts needing no interpretation to those who apprehend this scintillating spirit.
M. L. T.
AMHERST, October, 1896.
I. LIFEIREAL RICHES'T is little I could care for pearls Who own the ample sea;Or brooches, when the Emperor With rubies pelteth me;Or gold, who am the Prince of Mines; Or diamonds, when I seeA diadem to fit a dome Continual crowning me.IISUPERIORITY TO FATESuperiority to fate Is difficult to learn.'T is not conferred by any, But possible to earnA pittance at a time, Until, to her surprise,The soul with strict economy Subsists till Paradise.IIIHOPEHope is a subtle glutton; He feeds upon the fair;And yet, inspected closely, What abstinence is there!His is the halcyon table That never seats but one,And whatsoever is consumed The same amounts remain.IVFORBIDDEN FRUITIForbidden fruit a flavor has That lawful orchards mocks;How luscious lies the pea within The pod that Duty locks!VFORBIDDEN FRUITIIHeaven 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 groundBehind the hill, the house behind, — There Paradise is found!VIA WORDA word is deadWhen it is said, Some say.I say it justBegins to live That day.VIITo venerate the simple days Which lead the seasons by,Needs but to remember That from you or meThey may take the trifle Termed mortality!To invest existence with a stately air,Needs but to remember That the acorn thereIs the egg of forests For the upper air!VIIILIFE'S TRADESIt's such a little thing to weep, So short a thing to sigh;And yet by trades the size of these We men and women die!IXDrowning is not so pitiful As the attempt to rise.Three times, 't is said, a sinking man Comes up to face the skies,And then declines forever To that abhorred abodeWhere hope and he part company, — For he is grasped of God.The Maker's cordial visage, However good to see,Is shunned, we must admit it, Like an adversity.XHow still the bells in steeples stand, Till, swollen with the sky,They leap upon their silver feet In frantic melody!XIIf the foolish call them 'flowers,' Need the wiser tell?If the savans 'classify' them, It is just as well!Those who read the Revelations Must not criticiseThose who read the same edition With beclouded eyes!Could we stand with that old Moses Canaan denied, —Scan, like him, the stately landscape On the other side, —Doubtless we should deem superfluous Many sciencesNot pursued by learnèd angels In scholastic skies!Low amid that glad Belles lettres Grant that we may stand,Stars, amid profound Galaxies, At that grand 'Right hand'!XIIA SYLLABLECould mortal lip divine The undeveloped freightOf a delivered syllable, 'T would crumble with the weight.XIIIPARTINGMy life closed twice before its close; It yet remains to seeIf Immortality unveil A third event to me,So huge, so hopeless to conceive, As these that twice befell.Parting is all we know of heaven, And all we need of hell.XIVASPIRATIONWe never know how high we are Till we are called to rise;And then, if we are true to plan, Our statures touch the skies.The heroism we recite Would be a daily thing,Did not ourselves the cubits warp For fear to be a king.XVTHE INEVITABLEWhile I was fearing it, it came, But came with less of fear,Because that fearing it so long Had almost made it dear.There is a fitting a dismay, A fitting a despair.'Tis harder knowing it is due, Than knowing it is here.The trying on the utmost, The morning it is new,Is terribler than wearing it A whole existence through.XVIA BOOKThere is no frigate like a book To take us lands away,Nor any coursers like a page Of prancing poetry.This traverse may the poorest take Without oppress of toll;How frugal is the chariot That bears a human soul!XVIIWho has not found the heaven below Will fail of it above.God's residence is next to mine, His furniture is love.XVIIIA PORTRAITA face devoid of love or grace, A hateful, hard, successful face,A face with which a stone Would feel as thoroughly at easeAs were they old acquaintances, — First time together thrown.XIXI HAD A GUINEA GOLDENI had a guinea golden; I lost it in the sand,And though the sum was simple, And pounds were in the land,Still had it such a value Unto my frugal eye,That when I could not find it I sat me down to sigh.I had a crimson robin Who sang full many a day,But when the woods were painted He, too, did fly away.Time brought me other robins, — Their ballads were the same, —Still for my missing troubadour I kept the 'house at hame.'I had a star in heaven; One Pleiad was its name,And when I was not heeding It wandered from the same.And though the skies are crowded, And all the night ashine,I do not care about it, Since none of them are mine.My story has a moral: I have a missing friend, —Pleiad its name, and robin, And guinea in the sand, —And when this mournful ditty, Accompanied with tear,Shall meet the eye of traitor In country far from here,Grant that repentance solemn May seize upon his mind,And he no consolation Beneath the sun may find.NOTE. – This poem may have had, like many others, a personal origin. It is more than probable that it was sent to some friend travelling in Europe, a dainty reminder of letter-writing delinquencies.
XXSATURDAY AFTERNOONFrom all the jails the boys and girls Ecstatically leap, —Beloved, only afternoon That prison doesn't keep.They storm the earth and stun the air, A mob of solid bliss.Alas! that frowns could lie in wait For such a foe as this!XXIFew get enough, – enough is one; To that ethereal throngHave not each one of us the right To stealthily belong?XXIIUpon the gallows hung a wretch, Too sullied for the hellTo which the law entitled him. As nature's curtain fellThe one who bore him tottered in, For this was woman's son.''T was all I had,' she stricken gasped; Oh, what a livid boon!XXIIITHE LOST THOUGHTI felt a clearing in my mind As if my brain had split;I tried to match it, seam by seam, But could not make them fit.The thought behind I strove to join Unto the thought before,But sequence ravelled out of reach Like balls upon a floor.XXIVRETICENCEThe reticent volcano keeps His never slumbering plan;Confided are his projects pink To no precarious man.If nature will not tell the tale Jehovah told to her,Can human nature not survive Without a listener?Admonished by her buckled lips Let every babbler be.The only secret people keep Is Immortality.XXVWITH FLOWERSIf recollecting were forgetting, Then I remember not;And if forgetting, recollecting, How near I had forgot!And if to miss were merry, And if to mourn were gay,How very blithe the fingers That gathered these to-day!XXVIThe farthest thunder that I heard Was nearer than the sky,And rumbles still, though torrid noons Have lain their missiles by.The lightning that preceded it Struck no one but myself,But I would not exchange the bolt For all the rest of life.Indebtedness to oxygen The chemist may repay,But not the obligation To electricity.It founds the homes and decks the days, And every clamor brightIs but the gleam concomitant Of that waylaying light.The thought is quiet as a flake, — A crash without a sound;How life's reverberation Its explanation found!XXVIIOn the bleakness of my lot Bloom I strove to raise.Late, my acre of a rock Yielded grape and maize.Soil of flint if steadfast tilled Will reward the hand;Seed of palm by Lybian sun Fructified in sand.XXVIIICONTRASTA door just opened on a street — I, lost, was passing by —An instant's width of warmth disclosed, And wealth, and company.The door as sudden shut, and I, I, lost, was passing by, —Lost doubly, but by contrast most, Enlightening misery.XXIXFRIENDSAre friends delight or pain? Could bounty but remainRiches were good.But if they only stayBolder to fly away, Riches are sad.XXXFIREAshes denote that fire was; Respect the grayest pileFor the departed creature's sake That hovered there awhile.Fire exists the first in light, And then consolidates, —Only the chemist can disclose Into what carbonates.XXXIA MANFate slew him, but he did not drop; She felled – he did not fall —Impaled him on her fiercest stakes — He neutralized them all.She stung him, sapped his firm advance, But, when her worst was done,And he, unmoved, regarded her, Acknowledged him a man.XXXIIVENTURESFinite to fail, but infinite to venture. For the one ship that struts the shoreMany's the gallant, overwhelmed creature Nodding in navies nevermore.XXXIIIGRIEFSI measure every grief I meet With analytic eyes;I wonder if it weighs like mine, Or has an easier size.I wonder if they bore it long, Or did it just begin?I could not tell the date of mine, It feels so old a pain.I wonder if it hurts to live, And if they have to try,And whether, could they choose between, They would not rather die.I wonder if when years have piled — Some thousands – on the causeOf early hurt, if such a lapse Could give them any pause;Or would they go on aching still Through centuries above,Enlightened to a larger pain By contrast with the love.The grieved are many, I am told; The reason deeper lies, —Death is but one and comes but once, And only nails the eyes.There's grief of want, and grief of cold, — A sort they call 'despair;'There's banishment from native eyes, In sight of native air.And though I may not guess the kind Correctly, yet to meA piercing comfort it affords In passing Calvary,To note the fashions of the cross, Of those that stand alone,Still fascinated to presume That some are like my own.XXXIVI have a king who does not speak;So, wondering, thro' the hours meek I trudge the day away,—Half glad when it is night and sleep,If, haply, thro' a dream to peep In parlors shut by day.And if I do, when morning comes,It is as if a hundred drums Did round my pillow roll,And shouts fill all my childish sky,And bells keep saying 'victory' From steeples in my soul!And if I don't, the little BirdWithin the Orchard is not heard, And I omit to pray,'Father, thy will be done' to-day,For my will goes the other way, And it were perjury!XXXVDISENCHANTMENTIt dropped so low in my regard I heard it hit the ground,And go to pieces on the stones At bottom of my mind;Yet blamed the fate that fractured, less Than I reviled myselfFor entertaining plated wares Upon my silver shelf.XXXVILOST FAITHTo lose one's faith surpasses The loss of an estate,Because estates can be Replenished, – faith cannot.Inherited with life, Belief but once can be;Annihilate a single clause, And Being's beggary.XXXVIILOST JOYI had a daily bliss I half indifferent viewed,Till sudden I perceived it stir, — It grew as I pursued,Till when, around a crag, It wasted from my sight,Enlarged beyond my utmost scope, I learned its sweetness right.XXXVIIII worked for chaff, and earning wheat Was haughty and betrayed.What right had fields to arbitrate In matters ratified?I tasted wheat, – and hated chaff, And thanked the ample friend;Wisdom is more becoming viewed At distance than at hand.XXXIXLife, and Death, and Giants Such as these, are still.Minor apparatus, hopper of the mill,Beetle at the candle, Or a fife's small fame,Maintain by accident That they proclaim.XLALPINE GLOWOur lives are Swiss, — So still, so cool, Till, some odd afternoon,The Alps neglect their curtains, And we look farther on.Italy stands the other side, While, like a guard between,The solemn Alps,The siren Alps, Forever intervene!XLIREMEMBRANCERemembrance has a rear and front, — 'T is something like a house;It has a garret also For refuse and the mouse,Besides, the deepest cellar That ever mason hewed;Look to it, by its fathoms Ourselves be not pursued.XLIITo hang our head ostensibly, And subsequent to findThat such was not the posture Of our immortal mind,Affords the sly presumption That, in so dense a fuzz,You, too, take cobweb attitudes Upon a plane of gauze!XLIIITHE BRAINThe brain is wider than the sky, For, put them side by side,The one the other will include With ease, and you beside.The brain is deeper than the sea, For, hold them, blue to blue,The one the other will absorb, As sponges, buckets do.The brain is just the weight of God, For, lift them, pound for pound,And they will differ, if they do, As syllable from sound.XLIVThe bone that has no marrow; What ultimate for that?It is not fit for table, For beggar, or for cat.A bone has obligations, A being has the same;A marrowless assembly Is culpabler than shame.But how shall finished creatures A function fresh obtain? —Old Nicodemus' phantom Confronting us again!XLVTHE PASTThe past is such a curious creature, To look her in the faceA transport may reward us, Or a disgrace.Unarmed if any meet her, I charge him, fly!Her rusty ammunition Might yet reply!XLVITo help our bleaker parts Salubrious hours are given,Which if they do not fit for earth Drill silently for heaven.XLVIIWhat soft, cherubic creatures These gentlewomen are!One would as soon assault a plush Or violate a star.Such dimity convictions, A horror so refinedOf freckled human nature, Of Deity ashamed, —It's such a common glory, A fisherman's degree!Redemption, brittle lady, Be so, ashamed of thee.XLVIIIDESIREWho never wanted, – maddest joy Remains to him unknown:The banquet of abstemiousness Surpasses that of wine.Within its hope, though yet ungrasped Desire's perfect goal,No nearer, lest reality Should disenthrall thy soul.XLIXPHILOSOPHYIt might be easier To fail with land in sight,Than gain my blue peninsula To perish of delight.LPOWERYou cannot put a fire out; A thing that can igniteCan 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.LIA modest lot, a fame petite, A brief campaign of sting and sweet Is plenty! Is enough!A sailor's business is the shore, A soldier's – balls. Who asketh moreMust seek the neighboring life!LIIIs bliss, then, such abyssI must not put my foot amissFor fear I spoil my shoe?I'd rather suit my footThan save my boot,For yet to buy another pairIs possibleAt any fair.But bliss is sold just once;The patent lostNone buy it any more.LIIIEXPERIENCEI stepped from plank to plank So slow and cautiously;The stars about my head I felt, About my feet the sea.I knew not but the next Would be my final inch, —This gave me that precarious gait Some call experience.LIVTHANKSGIVING DAYOne day is there of the series Termed Thanksgiving day,Celebrated part at table, Part in memory.Neither patriarch nor pussy, I dissect the play;Seems it, to my hooded thinking, Reflex holiday.Had there been no sharp subtraction From the early sum,Not an acre or a caption Where was once a room,Not a mention, whose small pebble Wrinkled any bay, —Unto such, were such assembly, 'T were Thanksgiving day.LVCHILDISH GRIEFSSoftened by Time's consummate plush, How sleek the woe appearsThat threatened childhood's citadel And undermined the years!Bisected now by bleaker griefs, We envy the despairThat devastated childhood's realm, So easy to repair.II. LOVEICONSECRATIONProud of my broken heart since thou didst break it, Proud of the pain I did not feel till thee,Proud of my night since thou with moons dost slake it, Not to partake thy passion, my humility.IILOVE'S HUMILITYMy worthiness is all my doubt, His merit all my fear,Contrasting which, my qualities Do lowlier appear;Lest I should insufficient prove For his beloved need,The chiefest apprehension Within my loving creed.So I, the undivine abode Of his elect content,Conform my soul as 't were a church Unto her sacrament.IIILOVELove is anterior to life, Posterior to death,Initial of creation, and The exponent of breath.IVSATISFIEDOne blessing had I, than the rest So larger to my eyesThat I stopped gauging, satisfied, For this enchanted size.It was the limit of my dream, The focus of my prayer, —A perfect, paralyzing bliss Contented as despair.I knew no more of want or cold, Phantasms both become,For this new value in the soul, Supremest earthly sum.The heaven below the heaven above Obscured with ruddier hue.Life's latitude leant over-full; The judgment perished, too.Why joys so scantily disburse, Why Paradise defer,Why floods are served to us in bowls, — I speculate no more.VWITH A FLOWERWhen roses cease to bloom, dear, And violets are done,When bumble-bees in solemn flight Have passed beyond the sun,The hand that paused to gather Upon this summer's dayWill idle lie, in Auburn, — Then take my flower, pray!VISONGSummer for thee grant I may be When summer days are flown!Thy music still when whippoorwill And oriole are done!For thee to bloom, I'll skip the tomb And sow my blossoms o'er!Pray gather me, Anemone, Thy flower forevermore!VIILOYALTYSplit the lark and you'll find the music, Bulb after bulb, in silver rolled,Scantily dealt to the summer morning, Saved for your ear when lutes be old.Loose the flood, you shall find it patent, Gush after gush, reserved for you;Scarlet experiment! sceptic Thomas, Now, do you doubt that your bird was true?VIIITo lose thee, sweeter than to gain All other hearts I knew.'T is true the drought is destitute, But then I had the dew!The Caspian has its realms of sand, Its other realm of sea;Without the sterile perquisite No Caspian could be.IX Poor little heart! Did they forget thee?Then dinna care! Then dinna care! Proud little heart! Did they forsake thee?Be debonair! Be debonair! Frail little heart! I would not break thee:Could'st credit me? Could'st credit me? Gay little heart! Like morning gloryThou'll wilted be; thou'll wilted be!XFORGOTTENThere is a word Which bears a sword Can pierce an armed man.It hurls its barbed syllables,— At once is mute again.But where it fellThe saved will tell On patriotic day,Some epauletted brother Gave his breath away.Wherever runs the breathless sun, Wherever roams the day,There is its noiseless onset, There is its victory!Behold the keenest marksman! The most accomplished shot!Time's sublimest target Is a soul 'forgot'!XII've got an arrow here; Loving the hand that sent it,I the dart revere.Fell, they will say, in 'skirmish'! Vanquished, my soul will know,By but a simple arrow Sped by an archer's bow.XIITHE MASTERHe fumbles at your spirit As players at the keysBefore they drop full music on; He stuns you by degrees,Prepares your brittle substance For the ethereal blow,By fainter hammers, further heard, Then nearer, then so slowYour breath has time to straighten, Your brain to bubble cool, —Deals one imperial thunderbolt That scalps your naked soul.XIIIHeart, we will forget him! You and I, to-night!You may forget the warmth he gave, I will forget the light.When you have done, pray tell me, That I my thoughts may dim;Haste! lest while you're lagging, I may remember him!XIVFather, I bring thee not myself, — That were the little load;I bring thee the imperial heart I had not strength to hold.The heart I cherished in my own Till mine too heavy grew,Yet strangest, heavier since it went, Is it too large for you?XVWe outgrow love like other things And put it in the drawer,Till it an antique fashion shows Like costumes grandsires wore.XVINot with a club the heart is broken, Nor with a stone;A whip, so small you could not see it. I've knownTo lash the magic creature Till it fell,Yet that whip's name too noble Then to tell.Magnanimous of bird By boy descried,To sing unto the stone Of which it died.XVIIWHO?My friend must be a bird, Because it flies!Mortal my friend must be, Because it dies!Barbs has it, like a bee.Ah, curious friend, Thou puzzlest me!XVIIIHe touched me, so I live to knowThat such a day, permitted so, I groped 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.XIXDREAMSLet me not mar that perfect dream By an auroral stain,But so adjust my daily night That it will come again.XXNUMEN LUMENI live with him, I see his face; I go no more awayFor visitor, or sundown; Death's single privacy,The only one forestalling mine, And that by right that hePresents a claim invisible, No wedlock granted me.I live with him, I hear his voice, I stand alive to-dayTo witness to the certainty Of immortalityTaught me by Time, – the lower way, Conviction every day, —That life like this is endless, Be judgment what it may.XXILONGINGI envy seas whereon he rides, I envy spokes of wheelsOf chariots that him convey, I envy speechless hillsThat gaze upon his journey; How easy all can seeWhat is forbidden utterly As heaven, unto me!I envy nests of sparrows That dot his distant eaves,The wealthy fly upon his pane, The happy, happy leavesThat just abroad his window Have summer's leave to be,The earrings of Pizarro Could not obtain for me.I envy light that wakes him, And bells that boldly ringTo tell him it is noon abroad, — Myself his noon could bring,Yet interdict my blossom And abrogate my bee,Lest noon in everlasting night Drop Gabriel and me.XXIIWEDDEDA solemn thing it was, I said, A woman white to be,And wear, if God should count me fit, Her hallowed mystery.A timid thing to drop a life Into the purple well,Too plummetless that it come back Eternity until.III. NATUREINATURE'S CHANGESThe springtime's pallid landscape Will glow like bright bouquet,Though drifted deep in parian The village lies to-day.The lilacs, bending many a year, With purple load will hang;The bees will not forget the tune Their old forefathers sang.The rose will redden in the bog, The aster on the hillHer everlasting fashion set, And covenant gentians frill,Till summer folds her miracle As women do their gown,Or priests adjust the symbols When sacrament is done.IITHE TULIPShe slept beneath a tree Remembered but by me.I touched her cradle mute;She recognized the foot,Put on her carmine suit, — And see!IIIA light exists in spring Not present on the yearAt any other period. When March is scarcely hereA color stands abroad On solitary hillsThat science cannot overtake, But human nature feels.It waits upon the lawn; It shows the furthest treeUpon the furthest slope we know; It almost speaks to me.Then, as horizons step, Or noons report away,Without the formula of sound, It passes, and we stay:A quality of loss Affecting our content,As trade had suddenly encroached Upon a sacrament.IVTHE WAKING YEARA lady red upon the hill Her annual secret keeps;A lady white within the field In placid lily sleeps!The tidy breezes with their brooms Sweep vale, and hill, and tree!Prithee, my pretty housewives! Who may expected be?The neighbors do not yet suspect! The woods exchange a smile —Orchard, and buttercup, and bird — In such a little while!And yet how still the landscape stands, How nonchalant the wood,As if the resurrection Were nothing very odd!VTO MARCHDear March, come in!How glad I am!I looked for you before.Put down your hat —You must have walked —How out of breath you are!Dear March, how are you?And the rest?Did you leave Nature well?Oh, March, come right upstairs with me,I have so much to tell!I got your letter, and the birds';The maples never knewThat you were coming, – I declare,How red their faces grew!But, March, forgive me —And all those hillsYou left for me to hue;There was no purple suitable,You took it all with you.Who knocks? That April!Lock the door!I will not be pursued!He stayed away a year, to callWhen I am occupied.But trifles look so trivialAs soon as you have come,That blame is just as dear as praiseAnd praise as mere as blame.VIMARCHWe like March, his shoes are purple, He is new and high;Makes he mud for dog and peddler, Makes he forest dry;Knows the adder's tongue his coming, And begets her spot.Stands the sun so close and mighty That our minds are hot.News is he of all the others; Bold it were to dieWith the blue-birds buccaneering On his British sky.VIIDAWNNot knowing when the dawn will come I open every door;Or has it feathers like a bird, Or billows like a shore?VIIIA murmur in the trees to note, Not loud enough for wind;A star not far enough to seek, Nor near enough to find;A long, long yellow on the lawn, A hubbub as of feet;Not audible, as ours to us, But dapperer, more sweet;A hurrying home of little men To houses unperceived, —All this, and more, if I should tell, Would never be believed.Of robins in the trundle bed How many I espyWhose nightgowns could not hide the wings, Although I heard them try!But then I promised ne'er to tell; How could I break my word?So go your way and I'll go mine, — No fear you'll miss the road.IXMorning is the place for dew, Corn is made at noon,After dinner light for flowers, Dukes for setting sun!XTo my quick ear the leaves conferred; The bushes they were bells;I could not find a privacy From Nature's sentinels.In cave if I presumed to hide, The walls began to tell;Creation seemed a mighty crack To make me visible.XIA ROSEA sepal, petal, and a thorn Upon a common summer's morn,A flash of dew, a bee or two,A breezeA caper in the trees, — And I'm a rose!XIIHigh from the earth I heard a bird; He trod upon the treesAs he esteemed them trifles, And then he spied a breeze,And situated softly Upon a pile of windWhich in a perturbation Nature had left behind.A joyous-going fellow I gathered from his talk,Which both of benediction And badinage partook,Without apparent burden, I learned, in leafy woodHe was the faithful father Of a dependent brood;And this untoward transport His remedy for care, —A contrast to our respites. How different we are!XIIICOBWEBSThe spider as an artist Has never been employedThough his surpassing merit Is freely certifiedBy every broom and Bridget Throughout a Christian land.Neglected son of genius, I take thee by the hand.XIVA WELLWhat mystery pervades a well! The water lives so far,Like neighbor from another world Residing in a jar.The grass does not appear afraid; I often wonder heCan stand so close and look so bold At what is dread to me.Related somehow they may be, — The sedge stands next the sea,Where he is floorless, yet of fear No evidence gives he.But nature is a stranger yet; The ones that cite her mostHave never passed her haunted house, Nor simplified her ghost.To pity those that know her not Is helped by the regretThat those who know her, know her less The nearer her they get.XVTo make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee, —One clover, and a bee,And revery.The revery alone will doIf bees are few.XVITHE WINDIt's like the light, — A fashionless delightIt's like the bee, — A dateless melody.It's like the woods, Private like breeze,Phraseless, yet it stirs The proudest trees.It's like the morning, — Best when it's done, —The everlasting clocks Chime noon.XVIIA dew sufficed itself And satisfied a leaf,And felt, 'how vast a destiny! How trivial is life!'The sun went out to work, The day went out to play,But not again that dew was seen By physiognomy.Whether by day abducted, Or emptied by the sunInto the sea, in passing, Eternally unknown.XVIIITHE WOODPECKERHis bill an auger is, His head, a cap and frill.He laboreth at every tree, — A worm his utmost goal.XIXA SNAKESweet is the swamp with its secrets, Until we meet a snake;'T is then we sigh for houses, And our departure takeAt that enthralling gallop That only childhood knows.A snake is summer's treason, And guile is where it goes.XXCould I but ride indefinite, As doth the meadow-bee,And visit only where I liked, And no man visit me,And flirt all day with buttercups, And marry whom I may,And dwell a little everywhere, Or better, run awayWith no police to follow, Or chase me if I do,Till I should jump peninsulas To get away from you, —I said, but just to be a bee Upon a raft of air,And row in nowhere all day long, And anchor off the bar,—What liberty! So captives deem Who tight in dungeons are.XXITHE MOONThe 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 blond; Her cheek like beryl stone;Her eye unto the summer dew The likest I have known.Her lips of amber never part; But what must be the smileUpon her friend she could bestow Were such her silver will!And what a privilege to be But the remotest star!For certainly her way might pass Beside your twinkling door.Her bonnet is the firmament, The universe her shoe,The stars the trinkets at her belt, Her dimities of blue.XXIITHE BATThe bat is dun with wrinkled wings Like fallow article,And not a song pervades his lips, Or none perceptible.His small umbrella, quaintly halved, Describing in the airAn arc alike inscrutable, — Elate philosopher!Deputed from what firmament Of what astute abode,Empowered with what malevolence Auspiciously withheld.To his adroit Creator Ascribe no less the praise;Beneficent, believe me, His eccentricities.XXIIITHE BALLOONYou've seen balloons set, haven't you? So stately they ascendIt is as swans discarded you For duties diamond.Their liquid feet go softly out Upon a sea of blond;They spurn the air as 't were too mean For creatures so renowned.Their ribbons just beyond the eye, They struggle some for breath,And yet the crowd applauds 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 goes down,And clerks in counting-rooms observe, ''T was only a balloon.'XXIVEVENINGThe cricket sang,And set the sun,And workmen finished, one by one, Their seam the day upon.The low grass loaded with the dew,The twilight stood as strangers doWith hat in hand, polite and new, To stay as if, or go.A vastness, as a neighbor, came, —A wisdom without face or name,A peace, as hemispheres at home, — And so the night became.XXVCOCOONDrab habitation of whom?Tabernacle or tomb,Or dome of worm,Or porch of gnome,Or some elf's catacomb?XXVISUNSETA sloop of amber slips away Upon an ether sea,And wrecks in peace a purple tar, The son of ecstasy.XXVIIAURORAOf bronze and blaze The north, to-night! So adequate its forms,So preconcerted with itself, So distant to alarms, —An unconcern so sovereign To universe, or me,It paints my simple spirit With tints of majesty,Till I take vaster attitudes, And strut upon my stem,Disdaining men and oxygen, For arrogance of them.My splendors are menagerie; But their competeless showWill entertain the centuries When I am, long ago,An island in dishonored grass, Whom none but daisies know.XXVIIITHE COMING OF NIGHTHow the old mountains drip with sunset, And the brake of dun!How the hemlocks are tipped in tinsel By the wizard sun!How the old steeples hand the scarlet, Till the ball is full, —Have I the lip of the flamingo That I dare to tell?Then, how the fire ebbs like billows, Touching all the grassWith a departing, sapphire feature, As if a duchess pass!How a small dusk crawls on the village Till the houses blot;And the odd flambeaux no men carry Glimmer on the spot!Now it is night in nest and kennel, And where was the wood,Just a dome of abyss is nodding Into solitude! —These are the visions baffled Guido; Titian never told;Domenichino dropped the pencil, Powerless to unfold.XXIXAFTERMATHThe murmuring of bees has ceased; But murmuring of somePosterior, prophetic, Has simultaneous come, —The lower metres of the year, When nature's laugh is done, —The Revelations of the book Whose Genesis is June.IV. TIME AND ETERNITYIThis world is not conclusion; A sequel stands beyond,Invisible, as music, But positive, as sound.It beckons and it baffles; Philosophies don't know,And through a riddle, at the last, Sagacity must go.To guess it puzzles scholars; To gain it, men have shownContempt of generations, And crucifixion known.IIWe learn in the retreating How vast an oneWas recently among us. A perished sunEndears in the departure How doubly moreThan all the golden presence It was before!IIIThey say that 'time assuages,' — Time never did assuage;An actual suffering strengthens, As sinews do, with age.Time is a test of trouble, But not a remedy.If such it prove, it prove too There was no malady.IVWe cover thee, sweet face. Not that we tire of thee,But that thyself fatigue of us; Remember, as thou flee,We follow thee until Thou notice us no more,And then, reluctant, turn away To con thee o'er and o'er,And blame the scanty love We were content to show,Augmented, sweet, a hundred fold If thou would'st take it now.VENDINGThat is solemn we have ended, — Be it but a play,Or a glee among the garrets, Or a holiday,Or a leaving home; or later, Parting with a worldWe have understood, for better Still it be unfurled.VIThe stimulus, beyond the grave His countenance to see,Supports me like imperial drams Afforded royally.VIIGiven in marriage unto thee, Oh, thou celestial host!Bride of the Father and the Son, Bride of the Holy Ghost!Other betrothal shall dissolve, Wedlock of will decay;Only the keeper of this seal Conquers mortality.VIIIThat such have died enables us The tranquiller to die;That such have lived, certificate For immortality.IXThey won't frown always, – some sweet day When I forget to tease,They'll recollect how cold I looked, And how I just said 'please.'Then they will hasten to the door To call the little child,Who cannot thank them, for the ice That on her lisping piled.XIMMORTALITYIt is an honorable thought, And makes one lift one's hat,As one encountered gentlefolk Upon a daily street,That we've immortal place, Though pyramids decay,And kingdoms, like the orchard, Flit russetly away.XIThe distance that the dead have gone Does not at first appear;Their coming back seems possible For many an ardent year.And then, that we have followed them We more than half suspect,So intimate have we become With their dear retrospect.XIIHow dare the robins sing, When men and women hearWho since they went to their account Have settled with the year! —Paid all that life had earned In one consummate bill,And now, what life or death can do Is immaterial.Insulting is the sun To him whose mortal light,Beguiled of immortality, Bequeaths him to the night.In deference to him Extinct be every hum,Whose garden wrestles with the dew, At daybreak overcome!XIIIDEATHDeath is like the insect Menacing the tree,Competent to kill it, But decoyed may be.Bait it with the balsam, Seek it with the knife,Baffle, if it cost you Everything in life.Then, if it have burrowed Out of reach of skill,Ring the tree and leave it, — 'T is the vermin's will.XIVUNWARNED'T is sunrise, little maid, hast thou No station in the day?'T was not thy wont to hinder so, — Retrieve thine industry.'T is noon, my little maid, alas! And art thou sleeping yet?The lily waiting to be wed, The bee, dost thou forget?My little maid, 't is night; alas, That night should be to theeInstead of morning! Hadst thou broached Thy little plan to me,Dissuade thee if I could not, sweet, I might have aided thee.XVEach that we lose takes part of us; A crescent still abides,Which like the moon, some turbid night, Is summoned by the tides.XVINot any higher stands the grave For heroes than for men;Not any nearer for the child Than numb three-score and ten.This latest leisure equal lulls The beggar and his queen;Propitiate this democrat By summer's gracious mien.XVIIASLEEPAs far from pity as complaint, As cool to speech as stone,As numb to revelation As if my trade were bone.As far from time as history, As near yourself to-dayAs children to the rainbow's scarf, Or sunset's yellow playTo eyelids in the sepulchre. How still the dancer lies,While color's revelations break, And blaze the butterflies!XVIIITHE SPIRIT'T is whiter than an Indian pipe, 'T is dimmer than a lace;No stature has it, like a fog, When you approach the place.Not any voice denotes it here, Or intimates it there;A spirit, how doth it accost? What customs hath the air?This limitless hyperbole Each one of us shall be;'T is drama, if (hypothesis) It be not tragedy!XIXTHE MONUMENTShe laid her docile crescent down, And this mechanic stoneStill states, to dates that have forgot, The news that she is gone.So constant to its stolid trust, The shaft that never knew,It shames the constancy that fled Before its emblem flew.XXBless God, he went as soldiers, His musket on his breast;Grant, God, he charge the bravest Of all the martial blest.Please God, might I behold him In epauletted white,I should not fear the foe then, I should not fear the fight.XXIImmortal is an ample word When what we need is by,But when it leaves us for a time, 'T is a necessity.Of heaven above the firmest proof We fundamental know,Except for its marauding hand, It had been heaven below.XXIIWhere every bird is bold to go, And bees abashless play,The foreigner before he knocks Must thrust the tears away.XXIIIThe grave my little cottage is, Where, keeping house for thee,I make my parlor orderly, And lay the marble tea,For two divided, briefly, A cycle, it may be,Till everlasting life unite In strong society.XXIVThis was in the white of the year, That was in the green,Drifts were as difficult then to think As daisies now to be seen.Looking back is best that is left, Or if it be before,Retrospection is prospect's half, Sometimes almost more.XXVSweet hours have perished here; This is a mighty room;Within its precincts hopes have played, — Now shadows in the tomb.XXVIMe! Come! My dazzled faceIn such a shining place!Me! Hear! My foreign earThe sounds of welcome near!The saints shall meetOur bashful feet.My holiday shall beThat they remember me;My paradise, the fameThat they pronounce my name.XXVIIINVISIBLEFrom us she wandered now a year, Her tarrying unknown;If wilderness prevent her feet, Or that ethereal zoneNo eye hath seen and lived, We ignorant must be.We only know what time of year We took the mystery.XXVIIII wish I knew that woman's name, So, when she comes this way,To hold my life, and hold my ears, For fear I hear her sayShe's 'sorry I am dead,' again, Just when the grave and IHave sobbed ourselves almost to sleep, — Our only lullaby.XXIXTRYING TO FORGETBereaved of all, I went abroad, No less bereaved to beUpon a new peninsula, — The grave preceded me,Obtained my lodgings ere myself, And when I sought my bed,The grave it was, reposed upon The pillow for my head.I waked, to find it first awake, I rose, – it followed me;I tried to drop it in the crowd, To lose it in the sea,In cups of artificial drowse To sleep its shape away, —The grave was finished, but the spade Remained in memory.XXXI felt a funeral in my brain, And mourners, to and fro,Kept treading, treading, till it seemed That sense was breaking through.And when they all were seated, A service like a drumKept beating, beating, till I thought My mind was going numb.And then I heard them lift a box, And creak across my soulWith those same boots of lead, again. Then space began to tollAs all the heavens were a bell, And Being but an ear,And I and silence some strange race, Wrecked, solitary, here.XXXII meant to find her when I came; Death had the same design;But the success was his, it seems, And the discomfit mine.I meant to tell her how I longed For just this single time;But Death had told her so the first, And she had hearkened him.To wander now is my abode; To rest, – to rest would beA privilege of hurricane To memory and me.XXXIIWAITINGI sing to use the waiting, My bonnet but to tie,And shut the door unto my house; No more to do have I,Till, his best step approaching, We journey to the day,And tell each other how we sang To keep the dark away.XXXIIIA sickness of this world it most occasions When best men die;A wishfulness their far condition To occupy.A chief indifference, as foreign A world must beThemselves forsake contented, For Deity.XXXIVSuperfluous were the sun When excellence is dead;He were superfluous every day, For every day is saidThat syllable whose faith Just saves it from despair,And whose 'I'll meet you' hesitates If love inquire, 'Where?'Upon his dateless fame Our periods may lie,As stars that drop anonymous From an abundant sky.XXXVSo proud she was to die It made us all ashamedThat what we cherished, so unknown To her desire seemed.So satisfied to go Where none of us should be,Immediately, that anguish stooped Almost to jealousy.XXXVIFAREWELLTie the strings to my life, my Lord, Then I am ready to go!Just a look at the horses — Rapid! That will do!Put me in on the firmest side, So I shall never fall;For we must ride to the Judgment, And it's partly down hill.But never I mind the bridges, And never I mind the sea;Held fast in everlasting race By my own choice and thee.Good-by to the life I used to live, And the world I used to know;And kiss the hills for me, just once; Now I am ready to go!XXXVIIThe dying need but little, dear, — A glass of water's all,A flower's unobtrusive face To punctuate the wall,A fan, perhaps, a friend's regret, And certainly that oneNo color in the rainbow Perceives when you are gone.XXXVIIIDEADThere's something quieter than sleep Within this inner room!It wears a sprig upon its breast, And will not tell its name.Some touch it and some kiss it, Some chafe its idle hand;It has a simple gravity I do not understand!While simple-hearted neighbors Chat of the 'early dead,'We, prone to periphrasis, Remark that birds have fled!XXXIXThe soul should always stand ajar, That if the heaven inquire,He will not be obliged to wait, Or shy of troubling her.Depart, before the host has slid The bolt upon the door,To seek for the accomplished guest, — Her visitor no more.XLThree weeks passed since I had seen her, — Some disease had vexed;'T was with text and village singing I beheld her next,And a company – our pleasure To discourse alone;Gracious now to me as any, Gracious unto none.Borne, without dissent of either, To the parish night;Of the separated people Which are out of sight?XLII breathed enough to learn the trick, And now, removed from air,I simulate the breath so well, That one, to be quite sureThe lungs are stirless, must descend Among the cunning cells,And touch the pantomime himself. How cool the bellows feels!XLIII wonder if the sepulchre Is not a lonesome way,When men and boys, and larks and June Go down the fields to hay!XLIIIJOY IN DEATHIf tolling bell I ask the cause. 'A soul has gone to God,'I'm answered in a lonesome tone; Is heaven then so sad?That bells should joyful ring to tell A soul had gone to heaven,Would seem to me the proper way A good news should be given.XLIVIf I may have it when it's dead I will contented be;If just as soon as breath is out It shall belong to me,Until they lock it in the grave, 'T is bliss I cannot weigh,For though they lock thee in the grave, Myself can hold the key.Think of it, lover! I and thee Permitted face to face to be;After a life, a death we'll say, — For death was that, and this is thee.XLVBefore the ice is in the pools, Before the skaters go,Or any cheek at nightfall Is tarnished by the snow,Before the fields have finished, Before the Christmas tree,Wonder upon wonder Will arrive to me!What we touch the hems of On a summer's day;What is only walking Just a bridge away;That which sings so, speaks so, When there's no one here, —Will the frock I wept in Answer me to wear?XLVIDYINGI heard a fly buzz when I died; The stillness round my formWas like the stillness in the air Between the heaves of storm.The eyes beside had wrung them dry, And breaths were gathering sureFor that last onset, when the king Be witnessed in his power.I willed my keepsakes, signed away What portion of me ICould make assignable, – and then There interposed a fly,With blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz, Between the light and me;And then the windows failed, and then I could not see to see.XLVIIAdrift! A little boat adrift! And night is coming down!Will no one guide a little boat Unto the nearest town?So sailors say, on yesterday, Just as the dusk was brown,One little boat gave up its strife, And gurgled down and down.But angels say, on yesterday, Just as the dawn was red,One little boat o'erspent with galesRetrimmed its masts, redecked its sails Exultant, onward sped!XLVIIIThere's been a death in the opposite house As lately as to-day.I know it by the numb look Such houses have alway.The neighbors rustle in and out, The doctor drives away.A window opens like a pod, Abrupt, mechanically;Somebody flings a mattress out, — The children hurry by;They wonder if It died on that, — I used to when a boy.The minister goes stiffly in As if the house were his,And he owned all the mourners now, And little boys besides;And then the milliner, and the man Of the appalling trade,To take the measure of the house. There'll be that dark paradeOf tassels and of coaches soon; It's easy as a sign, —The intuition of the news In just a country town.XLIXWe never know we go, – when we are going We jest and shut the door;Fate following behind us bolts it, And we accost no more.LTHE SOUL'S STORMIt struck me every day The lightning was as newAs if the cloud that instant slit And let the fire through.It burned me in the night, It blistered in my dream;It sickened fresh upon my sight With every morning's beam.I thought that storm was brief, — The maddest, quickest by;But Nature lost the date of this, And left it in the sky.LIWater is taught by thirst;Land, by the oceans passed; Transport, by throe;Peace, by its battles told;Love, by memorial mould; Birds, by the snow.LIITHIRSTWe thirst at first, – 't is Nature's act; And later, when we die,A little water supplicate Of fingers going by.It intimates the finer want, Whose adequate supplyIs that great water in the west Termed immortality.LIIIA clock stopped – not the mantel's; Geneva's farthest skillCan't put the puppet bowing That just now dangled still.An awe came on the trinket! The figures hunched with pain,Then quivered out of decimals Into degreeless noon.It will not stir for doctors, This pendulum of snow;The shopman importunes it, While cool, concernless NoNods from the gilded pointers, Nods from the seconds slim,Decades of arrogance between The dial life and him.LIVCHARLOTTE BRONTË'S GRAVEAll overgrown by cunning moss, All interspersed with weed,The little cage of 'Currer Bell,' In quiet Haworth laid.This bird, observing others, When frosts too sharp became,Retire to other latitudes, Quietly did the same,But differed in returning; Since Yorkshire hills are green,Yet not in all the nests I meet Can nightingale be seen.Gathered from many wanderings, Gethsemane can tellThrough what transporting anguish She reached the asphodel!Soft fall the sounds of Eden Upon her puzzled ear;Oh, what an afternoon for heaven, When 'Brontë' entered there!LVA toad can die of light!Death is the common right Of toads and men, —Of earl and midgeThe privilege. Why swagger then?The gnat's supremacyIs large as thine.LVIFar from love the Heavenly Father Leads the chosen child;Oftener through realm of briar Than the meadow mild,Oftener by the claw of dragon Than the hand of friend,Guides the little one predestined To the native land.LVIISLEEPINGA long, long sleep, a famous sleep That makes no show for dawnBy stretch of limb or stir of lid, — An independent one.Was ever idleness like this? Within a hut of stoneTo bask the centuries away Nor once look up for noon?LVIIIRETROSPECT'T was just this time last year I died. I know I heard the corn,When I was carried by the farms, — It had the tassels on.I thought how yellow it would look When Richard went to mill;And then I wanted to get out, But something held my will.I thought just how red apples wedged The stubble's joints between;And carts went stooping round the fields To take the pumpkins in.I wondered which would miss me least, And when Thanksgiving came,If father'd multiply the plates To make an even sum.And if my stocking hung too high, Would it blur the Christmas glee,That not a Santa Claus could reach The altitude of me?But this sort grieved myself, and so I thought how it would beWhen just this time, some perfect year, Themselves should come to me.LIXETERNITYOn this wondrous sea,Sailing silently, Ho! pilot, ho!Knowest thou the shoreWhere no breakers roar, Where the storm is o'er?In the silent westMany sails at rest, Their anchors fast;Thither I pilot thee, —Land, ho! Eternity! Ashore at last!
