• "Heaven" has different Signs — to me —

    Sometimes, I think that Noon

    Is but a symbol of the Place —

    And when again, at Dawn,


    A mighty look runs round the World

    And settles in the Hills —

    An Awe if it should be like that

    Upon the Ignorance steals —


    The Orchard, when the...

  •  * * *


    The Hebrew Nation did not write it.

    Avarice & Chastity did shite it. [2]

  • Her breast is fit for pearls,

    But I was not a "Diver" —

    Her brow is fit for thrones

    But I have not a crest.

    Her heart is fit for home —

    I — a Sparrow — build there

    Sweet of twigs and twine

    My perennial nest.

  •    A VERY good fish, very good way of selling

    A very bad thing, with a little bad spelling,

    Make the name by the parson and godfather giv'n,

    When a Christian was made of an angel from heav'n.

  • Her face was in a bed of hair,

    Like flowers in a plot —

    Her hand was whiter than the sperm

    That feeds the sacred light.

    Her tongue more tender than the tune

    That totters in the leaves —

    Who hears may be incredulous,

    Who witnesses, believes.

  • Her final Summer was it —

    And yet We guessed it not —

    If tenderer industriousness

    Pervaded Her, We thought


    A further force of life

    Developed from within —

    When Death lit all the shortness up

    It made the hurry plain —


    We wondered at our blindness

    When...

  • Her Grace is all she has —

    And that, so least displays —

    One Art to recognize, must be,

    Another Art, to praise.

  • Her little Parasol to lift

    And once to let it down

    Her whole Responsibility —

    To imitate be Mine.


    A Summer further I must wear,

    Content if Nature's Drawer

    Present me from sepulchral Crease

    As blemishless, as Her.

  • Her Losses make our Gains ashamed —

    She bore Life's empty Pack

    As gallantly as if the East

    Were swinging at her Back.

    Life's empty Pack is heaviest,

    As every Porter knows —

    In vain to punish Honey —

    It only sweeter grows.

  • Her smile was shaped like other smiles —

    The Dimples ran along —

    And still it hurt you, as some Bird

    Did hoist herself, to sing,

    Then recollect a Ball, she got —

    And hold upon the Twig,

    Convulsive, while the Music broke —

    Like Beads — among the Bog —