These held their Wick above the West —
Till when the Red declined —
Or how the Amber aided it —
Defied to be defined —
Then waned without disparagement
In a dissembling Hue
That would not let the Eye decide
Did it abide or no —
-
-
These Strangers, in a foreign World,
Protection asked of me —
Befriend them, lest Yourself in Heaven
Be found a Refugee — -
These tested Our Horizon —
Then disappeared
As Birds before achieving
A Latitude.
Our Retrospection of Them
A fixed Delight,
But our Anticipation
A Dice — a Doubt — -
These — saw Visions —
Latch them softly —
These — held Dimples —
Smooth them slow —
This — addressed departing accents —
Quick — Sweet Mouth — to miss thee so —
This — We stroked —
Unnumbered Satin —
These — we held among our own —
Fingers of the Slim Aurora —...They ask but our Delight —
The Darlings of the Soil
And grant us all their Countenance
For a penurious smile.They called me to the Window, for
" 'Twas Sunset" — Some one said —
I only saw a Sapphire Farm —
And just a Single Herd —
Of Opal Cattle — feeding far
Upon so vain a Hill —
As even while I looked — dissolved —
Nor Cattle were — nor Soil —
But in their stead — a Sea —...They dropped like Flakes —
They dropped like Stars —
Like Petals from a Rose —
When suddenly across the June
A wind with fingers — goes —
They perished in the Seamless Grass —
No eye could find the place —
But God can summon every face
Of his Repealless — List.They have a little Odor — that to me
Is metre — nay — 'tis melody —
And spiciest at fading — indicate —
A Habit — of a Laureate —They leave us with the Infinite.
But He — is not a man —
His fingers are the size of fists —
His fists, the size of men —
And whom he foundeth, with his Arm
As Himmaleh, shall stand —
Gibraltar's Everlasting Shoe
Poised lightly on his Hand,
So trust him, Comrade —...They might not need me but; they might.
I'll let my Head be just in sight;
A smile as small as mine might be
Precisely their necessity.