I never told the buried gold
Upon the hill — that lies —
I saw the sun — his plunder done
Crouch low to guard his prize.
He stood as near
As stood you here —
A pace had been between —
Did but a snake bisect the brake
My life had forfeit been.
That was a...
I noticed People disappeared
When but a little child —
Supposed they visited remote
Or settled Regions wild —
But did because they died
A Fact withheld the little child —
I often passed the village
When going home from school —
And wondered what they did there —
And why it was so still —
I did not know the year then —
In which my call would come —
Earlier, by the Dial,
Than the rest have gone.
It's stiller than the sundown.
...
I pay — in Satin Cash —
You did not state — your price —
A Petal, for a Paragraph
It near as I can guess —
I play at Riches — to appease
The Clamoring for Gold —
It kept me from a Thief, I think,
For often, overbold
With Want, and Opportunity —
I could have done a Sin
And been Myself that easy Thing
An independent Man —
But often as my lot displays
Too hungry to...
I prayed, at first, a little Girl,
Because they told me to —
But stopped, when qualified to guess
How prayer would feel — to me —
If I believed God looked around,
Each time my Childish eye
Fixed full, and steady, on his own
In Childish honesty —
And told him what I'd...
I read my sentence — steadily —
Reviewed it with my eyes,
To see that I made no mistake
In its extremest clause —
The Date, and manner, of the shame —
And then the Pious Form
That "God have mercy" on the Soul
The Jury voted Him —
I made my soul familiar — with her extremity —...
I reason, earth is short,
And anguish absolute,
And many hurt ;
But what of that ?
I reason, we could die :
The best vitality
Cannot excel decay ;
But what of that ?
I reason that in...
I reckon — when I count at all —
First — Poets — Then the Sun —
Then Summer — Then the Heaven of God —
And then — the List is done —
But, looking back — the First so seems
To Comprehend the Whole —
The Others look a needless Show —
So I write — Poets — All —
Their...
I robbed the Woods —
The trusting Woods.
The unsuspecting Trees
Brought out their Burs and mosses
My fantasy to please.
I scanned their trinkets curious — I grasped — I bore away —
What will the solemn Hemlock —
What will the Oak tree say?