I have a Bird in spring
Which for myself doth sing -
The spring decoys.
...
I have a King, who does not speak —
So — wondering — thro' the hours meek
I trudge the day away —
Half glad when it is night, and sleep,
If, haply, thro' a dream, to peep
In parlors, shut by day.
And if I do — when morning comes —
It is as if a hundred drums
Did round my...
I have never seen "Volcanoes" —
But, when Travellers tell
How those old — phlegmatic mountains
Usually so still —
Bear within — appalling Ordnance,
Fire, and smoke, and gun,
Taking Villages for breakfast,
And appalling Men —
If the stillness is Volcanic
In...
I have no Life but this —
To lead it here —
Nor any Death — but lest
Dispelled from there —
Nor tie to Earths to come —
Nor Action new —
Except through this extent —
The Realm of you —
I haven't told my garden yet —
Lest that should conquer me.
I haven't quite the strength now
To break it to the Bee —
I will not name it in the street
For shops would stare at me —
That one so shy — so ignorant
Should have the face to die.
The hillsides must not know...
I heard a Fly buzz — when I died —
The Stillness in the Room
Was like the Stillness in the Air —
Between the Heaves of Storm —
The Eyes around — had wrung them dry —
And Breaths were gathering firm
For that last Onset — when the King
Be witnessed — in the Room —
I...
* * *
I heard an Angel singing
When the day was springing,
‘Mercy, Pity, Peace,
Is the world’s release.’
Thus he sung all day
Over the new mown hay,
Till the sun went down
And haycocks looked brown.
I heard a Devil curse
...
I heard, as if I had no Ear
Until a Vital Word
Came all the way from Life to me
And then I knew I heard.
I saw, as if my Eye were on
Another, till a Thing
And now I know 'twas Light, because
It fitted them, came in.
I dwelt, as if Myself, were out,
My Body...
I held a Jewel in my fingers —
And went to sleep —
The day was warm, and winds were prosy —
I said "'Twill keep" —
I woke — and chid my honest fingers,
The Gem was gone —
And now, an Amethyst remembrance
Is all I own —
I hide myself within my flower,
That fading from your Vase,
You, unsuspecting, feel for me —
Almost a loneliness.