• To own a Susan of my own

    To own a Susan of my own

    Is of itself a Bliss —

    Whatever Realm I forfeit, Lord,

    Continue me in this!

  • To own the Art within the Soul

    To own the Art within the Soul

    The Soul to entertain

    With Silence as a Company

    And Festival maintain


    Is an unfurnished Circumstance

    Possession is to One

    As an Estate perpetual

    Or a reduceless Mine.

  • To Peter Cooper

              The Pyramids of Egypt, even to-day

                 The wonder of the world, stupendous stand

              In their material greatness, and defy

                 Alike relentless Time and Libyan sand.

              But what great thought through those grim structures smiles?

              What Aspiration reared those...

  • To pile like Thunder to its close

    To pile like Thunder to its close

    Then crumble grand away

    While Everything created hid

    This — would be Poetry —


    Or Love — the two coeval come —

    We both and neither prove —

    Experience either and consume —

    For None see God and live —

  • To put this World down, like a Bundle —

    To put this World down, like a Bundle —

    And walk steady, away,

    Requires Energy — possibly Agony —

    'Tis the Scarlet way


    Trodden with straight renunciation

    By the Son of God —

    Later, his faint Confederates

    Justify the Road —


    Flavors of that old Crucifixion —

    ...

  • To Rembrandt

      As in that twilight, superstitious age

    When all beyond the narrow grasp of mind

    Seem'd fraught with meanings of supernal kind,

      When e'en the learned, philosophic sage,

    Wont with the stars through boundless space to range,

      Listen'd with reverence to the changeling's tale;

    E'en so, thou strangest of...

  • To see her is a Picture —

    To see her is a Picture —

    To hear her is a Tune —

    To know her an Intemperance

    As innocent as June —

    To know her not — Affliction —

    To own her for a Friend

    A warmth as near as if the Sun

    Were shining in your Hand.

  • To see the Summer Sky

    To see the Summer Sky

    Is Poetry, though never in a Book it lie —

    True Poems flee —

  • To S——d (You all your youth observed the Golden Rule)


    * * *


    You all your Youth observed the Golden Rule

    Till youre at last become the golden Fool

    I sport with Fortune Merry Blithe & Gay

    Like to the Lion Sporting with his Prey
    5 Take you the hide &...

  • To tell the Beauty would decrease

    To tell the Beauty would decrease

    To state the Spell demean —

    There is a syllable-less Sea

    Of which it is the sign —

    My will endeavors for its word

    And fails, but entertains

    A Rapture as of Legacies —

    Of introspective Mines —