The bustle in a house
The morning after death
Is solemnest of industries
Enacted upon earth, —
The sweeping up the heart,
And putting love away
We shall not want to use again
Until eternity.
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The Butterfly in honored Dust
Assuredly will lie
But none will pass the Catacomb
So chastened as the Fly — -
The butterfly obtains
But little sympathy
Though favorably mentioned
In Entomology —
Because he travels freely
And wears a proper coat
The circumspect are certain
That he is dissolute —
Had he the homely scutcheon
Of modest Industry
'Twere...The Butterfly upon the Sky,
That doesn't know its Name
And hasn't any tax to pay
And hasn't any Home
Is just as high as you and I,
And higher, I believe,
So soar away and never sigh
And that's the way to grieve —The butterfly's assumption-gown,
In chrysoprase apartments hung,
This afternoon put on.
How condescending to descend,
And be of buttercups the friend
In a New England town !The Butterfly's Numidian Gown
With spots of Burnish roasted on
Is proof against the Sun
Yet prone to shut its spotted Fan
And panting on a Clover lean
As if it were undone —Go, lovely boy! to yonder tow'r
The fane of Janus, ruthless King!
And shut, O! shut the brazen door,
And here the keys in triumph bring.
Full many a tender heart hath bled,
Its joys in Belgia's soil entomb'd:
Which thou to Hymen's smiling bed,
And length of sweetest hours had...THRICE happy cat, if, in thy A— House,
Thou luckily shouldst find a half-starv'd mouse;
The mice, that only for his music stay,
Are proofs that Orpheus did not better play.
Thou too, if danger could alarm thy fears,
Hast to this Orpheus strangely tied thy ears:
For oh! the fatal...We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground ;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.
Since then 't is centuries ; but each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.The Chemical conviction
That Nought be lost
Enable in Disaster
My fractured Trust —
The Faces of the Atoms
If I shall see
How more the Finished Creatures
Departed me!