She rose to His Requirement — dropt
The Playthings of Her Life
To take the honorable Work
Of Woman, and of Wife —
If ought She missed in Her new Day,
Of Amplitude, or Awe —
Or first Prospective — Or the Gold
In using, wear away,
It lay unmentioned — as the Sea
...
She sights a Bird — she chuckles —
She flattens — then she crawls —
She runs without the look of feet —
Her eyes increase to Balls —
Her Jaws stir — twitching — hungry —
Her Teeth can hardly stand —
She leaps, but Robin leaped the first —
Ah, Pussy, of the Sand,
The...
She slept beneath a tree —
Remembered but by me.
I touched her Cradle mute —
She recognized the foot —
Put on her carmine suit
And see!
She sped as Petals of a Rose
Offended by the Wind —
A frail Aristocrat of Time
Indemnity to find —
Leaving on nature — a Default
As Cricket or as Bee —
But Andes in the Bosoms where
She had begun to lie —
She staked her Feathers — Gained an Arc —
Debated — Rose again —
This time — beyond the estimate
Of Envy, or of Men —
And now, among Circumference —
Her steady Boat be seen —
At home — among the Billows — As
The Bough where she was born —
She sweeps with many-colored Brooms —
And leaves the Shreds behind —
Oh Housewife in the Evening West —
Come back, and dust the Pond!
You dropped a Purple Ravelling in —
You dropped an Amber thread —
And how you've littered all the East
With duds of Emerald!
And still...
She went as quiet as the dew
From a familiar flower.
Not like the dew did she return
At the accustomed hour !
She dropt as softly as a star
From out my summer's eve ;
Less skilful than Leverrier
It's sorer...
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 bell is set a-ringing, and the engine gives a toot,
There's five-and-thirty shearers here a-shearing for the loot,
So stir yourselves, you penners-up, and shove the sheep along --
The musterers are fetching them a hundred thousand strong --
And make your collie dogs speak up; what would the buyers say
In London...
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