I'm wife ; I've finished that,
That other state ;
I'm Czar, I'm woman now :
It's safer so.
How odd the girl's life looks
Behind this soft eclipse !
I think that earth seems so
To those in heaven now.
...
Come slowly, Eden !
Lips unused to thee,
Bashful, sip thy jasmines,
As the fainting bee,
Reaching late his flower,
Round her chamber hums,
Counts his nectars — enters,
And is lost in balms !
The morns are meeker than they were,
The nuts are getting brown ;
The berry's cheek is plumper,
The rose is out of town.
The maple wears a gayer scarf,
The field a scarlet gown.
Lest I should be old-fashioned,
...
When night is almost done,
And sunrise grows so near
That we can touch the spaces,
It 's time to smooth the hair
And get the...
No rack can torture me,
My soul 's at liberty.
Behind this mortal bone
There knits a bolder one
You cannot prick with saw,
Nor rend with scymitar.
Two bodies therefore be ;
Bind one, and one will flee....