The Past is such a curious Creature
To look her in the Face
A Transport may receipt us
Or a Disgrace —
Unarmed if any meet her
I charge him fly
Her faded Ammunition
Might yet reply.
-
-
The pattern of the sun
Can fit but him alone
For sheen must have a Disk
To be a sun — -
The pedigree of honey
Does not concern the bee ;
A clover, any time, to him
Is aristocracy. -
The Pile of Years is not so high
As when you came before
But it is rising every Day
From recollection's Floor
And while by standing on my Heart
I still can reach the top
Efface the mountain with your face
And catch me ere I drop -
The Poets light but Lamps —
Themselves — go out —
The Wicks they stimulate —
If vital Light
Inhere as do the Suns —
Each Age a Lens
Disseminating their
Circumference — -
The Popular Heart is a Cannon first —
Subsequent a Drum —
Bells for an Auxiliary
And an Afterward of Rum —
Not a Tomorrow to know its name
Nor a Past to stare —
Ditches for Realms and a Trip to Jail
For a Souvenir — -
The power to be true to You,
Until upon my face
The Judgment push his Picture —
Presumptuous of Your Place —
Of This — Could Man deprive Me —
Himself — the Heaven excel —
Whose invitation — Yours reduced
Until it showed too small — -
The pretty Rain from those sweet Eaves
Her unintending Eyes —
Took her own Heart, including ours,
By innocent Surprise —
The wrestle in her simple Throat
To hold the feeling down
That vanquished her — defeated Feat —
Was Fervor's sudden Crown — -
CAN there on earth, my Celia, be
A price I would not pay for thee?
Yes, one dear precious tear of thine
Should not be shed to make thee mine. -
The Products of my Farm are these
Sufficient for my Own
And here and there a Benefit
Unto a Neighbor's Bin.
With Us, 'tis Harvest all the Year
For when the Frosts begin
We just reverse the Zodiac
And fetch the Acres in.