• Our little secrets slink away —

    Beside God's shall not tell —

    He kept his word a Trillion years

    And might we not as well —

    But for the niggardly delight

    To make each other stare

    Is there no sweet beneath the sun

    With this that may compare —

  • Poor little Heart!

    Did they forget thee?

    Then dinna care! Then dinna care!


    Proud little Heart!

    Did they forsake thee?

    Be debonnaire! Be debonnaire!


    Frail little Heart!

    I would not break thee —

    Could'st credit me? Could'st credit me?


    Gay little Heart...

  • Prayer is the little implement

    Through which Men reach

    Where Presence — is denied them.

    They fling their Speech


    By means of it — in God's Ear —

    If then He hear —

    This sums the Apparatus

    Comprised in Prayer —

  • The Dying need but little, Dear,

    A Glass of Water's all,

    A Flower's unobtrusive Face

    To punctuate the Wall,


    A Fan, perhaps, a Friend's Regret

    And Certainty that one

    No color in the Rainbow

    Perceive, when you are gone.

  • 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 Lady feeds Her little Bird

    At rarer intervals —

    The little Bird would not dissent

    But meekly recognize


    The Gulf between the Hand and Her

    And crumbless and afar

    And fainting, on Her yellow Knee

    Fall softly, and adore —

  • They have a little Odor — that to me

    Is metre — nay — 'tis melody —

    And spiciest at fading — indicate —

    A Habit — of a Laureate —

  • This dirty — little — Heart

    Is freely mine.

    I won it with a Bun —

    A Freckled shrine —


    But eligibly fair

    To him who sees

    The Visage of the Soul

    And not the knees.

  • To die — takes just a little while —

    They say it doesn't hurt —

    It's only fainter — by degrees —

    And then — it's out of sight —


    A darker Ribbon — for a Day —

    A Crape upon the Hat —

    And then the pretty sunshine comes —

    And helps us to forget —


    The absent — mystic —...

  • Too little way the House must lie

    From every Human Heart

    That holds in undisputed Lease

    A white inhabitant —


    Too narrow is the Right between —

    Too imminent the chance —

    Each Consciousness must emigrate

    And lose its neighbor once —