• By a departing light

    We see acuter, quite,

    Than by a wick that stays.

    There's something in the flight

    That clarifies the sight

    And decks the rays.

  • By a flower — By a letter —

    By a nimble love —

    If I weld the Rivet faster —

    Final fast — above —


    Never mind my breathless Anvil!

    Never mind Repose!

    Never mind the sooty faces

    Tugging at the Forge!

  • By Chivalries as tiny,

    A Blossom, or a Book,

    The seeds of smiles are planted —

    Which blossom in the dark.

  • By homely gift and hindered Words

    The human heart is told

    Of Nothing —

    "Nothing" is the force

    That renovates the World —

  • By my Window have I for Scenery

    Just a Sea — with a Stem —

    If the Bird and the Farmer — deem it a "Pine" —

    The Opinion will serve — for them —


    It has no Port, nor a "Line" — but the Jays —

    That split their route to the Sky —

    Or a Squirrel, whose giddy Peninsula

    May be easier reached —...

  • By such and such an offering

    To Mr. So and So,

    The web of live woven —

    So martyrs albums show!

  •  Pride that sat on the beautiful brow,

        Scorn that lay in the arching lips,

      Will of the oak-grain, where are ye now?

        I may dare to touch her finger-tips!

      Deep, flaming eyes, ye are shallow enough;

        The steadiest fire burns out at last.

      Throw back the shutters,--the sky is rough,
    ...

  • Far to the Northward there lies a land,

    A wonderful land that the winds blow over,

    And none may fathom or understand

    The charm it holds for the restless rover;

    A great grey chaos -- a land half made,

    Where endless space is and no life stirreth;

    There the soul of a man will recoil afraid

    From...

  • By the Hoof of the Wild Goat uptossed

    From the cliff where she lay in the Sun

    Fell the Stone

    To the Tarn where the daylight is lost,

    So she fell from the light of the Sun

    And alone!


    Now the fall was ordained from the first

    With the Goat and the Cliff and the Tarn,

    But the...