The Grace — Myself — might not obtain —
Confer upon My flower —
Refracted but a Countenance —
For I — inhabit Her —
-
-
And even when it dies, to pass
In odors so divine,
As lowly spices gone to sleep,
Or amulets of pine
And then to dwell in sovereign barns,
And dream the days away, —
The grass so little has to do,
I wish I were the hay ! -
The 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. -
The Guest is gold and crimson —
An Opal guest and gray —
Of Ermine is his doublet —
His Capuchin gay —
He reaches town at nightfall —
He stops at every door —
Who looks for him at morning
I pray him too — explore
The Lark's pure territory —
Or the Lapwing's shore...The hallowing of Pain
Like hallowing of Heaven,
Obtains at a corporeal cost —
The Summit is not given
To Him who strives severe
At middle of the Hill —
But He who has achieved the Top —
All — is the price of All —The harm of Years is on him —
The infamy of Time —
Depose him like a Fashion
And give Dominion room.
Forget his Morning Forces —
The Glory of Decay
Is a minuter Pageant
Than least Vitality.The healed Heart shows its shallow scar
With confidential moan —
Not mended by Mortality
Are Fabrics truly torn —
To go its convalescent way
So shameless is to see
More genuine were Perfidy
Than such Fidelity.The heart asks pleasure first,
And then, excuse from pain ;
And then, those little anodynes
That deaden suffering ;
And then, to go to sleep ;
And then, if it should be
The will of its Inquisitor,
The...The Heart has many Doors —
I can but knock —
For any sweet "Come in"
Impelled to hark —
Not saddened by repulse,
Repast to me
That somewhere, there exists,
Supremacy —The Heart has narrow Banks
It measures like the Sea
In mighty — unremitting Bass
And Blue Monotony
Till Hurricane bisect
And as itself discerns
Its insufficient Area
The Heart convulsive learns
That Calm is but a Wall
Of unattempted Gauze
An...