When I count the seeds
That are sown beneath,
To bloom so, bye and bye —
When I con the people
Lain so low,
To be received as high —
When I believe the garden
Mortal shall not see —
Pick by faith its blossom
And avoid its Bee,
I can spare this summer,...
When I have seen the Sun emerge
From His amazing House —
And leave a Day at every Door
A Deed, in every place —
Without the incident of Fame
Or accident of Noise —
The Earth has seemed to me a Drum,
Pursued of little Boys
When I hoped I feared —
Since I hoped I dared
Everywhere alone
As a Church remain —
Spectre cannot harm —
Serpent cannot charm —
He deposes Doom
Who hath suffered him —
When I hoped, I recollect
Just the place I stood —
At a Window facing West —
Roughest Air — was good —
Not a Sleet could bite me —
Not a frost could cool —
Hope it was that kept me warm —
Not Merino shawl —
When I feared — I recollect
Just the Day it was —...
* * *
When I see a Rubens Rembrant Correggio
I think of the Crippled Harry & Slobbering Joe
And then I question thus are artists rules
To be drawn from the works of two manifest fools
5 Then God...
When I was small, a Woman died —
Today — her Only Boy
Went up from the Potomac —
His face all Victory
To look at her — How slowly
The Seasons must have turned
Till Bullets clipt an Angle
And He passed quickly round —
If pride shall be in Paradise —
Ourself...
When Katie walks, this simple pair accompany her side,
When Katie runs unwearied they follow on the road,
When Katie kneels, their loving hands still clasp her pious knee —
Ah! Katie! Smile at Fortune, with two so knit to thee!
If Blake could do this when he rose up from shite
What might he not do if he sat down to write[4]
When Memory is full
Put on the perfect Lid —
This Morning's finest syllable
Presumptuous Evening said —
When Night is almost done —
And Sunrise grows so near
That we can touch the Spaces —
It's time to smooth the Hair —
And get the Dimples ready —
And wonder we could care
For that old — faded Midnight —
That frightened — but an Hour —