• Of Death I try to think like this —

    The Well in which they lay us

    Is but the Likeness of the Brook

    That menaced not to slay us,

    But to invite by that Dismay

    Which is the Zest of sweetness

    To the same Flower Hesperian,

    Decoying but to greet us —


    I do remember when a Child...

  • Of Glory not a Beam is left

    But her Eternal House —

    The Asterisk is for the Dead,

    The Living, for the Stars —

  • Of God we ask one favor,

    That we may be forgiven —

    For what, he is presumed to know —

    The Crime, from us, is hidden —

    Immured the whole of Life

    Within a magic Prison

    We reprimand the Happiness

    That too competes with Heaven.

  •    WHAT is good-nature? Gen'rous Richmond, tell;

    He can declare it best, who best can feel.

    Is it a foolish weakness in the breast,

    As some who know, or have it not, contest?

    Or is it rather not the mighty whole,

    Full composition of a virtuous soul?

    Is it not virtue's self? A flower so fine,...


  • * * *


    Of H s birth this was the happy lot

    His Mother on his Father him begot

  • William was once a bashful youth,

       His modesty was such,

    That one might say (to say the truth)

       He rather had too much.


    Some said that it was want of sense,

       And others, want of spirit,

    (So blest a thing is impudence,)

       While others could not bear it.


    ...

  • Of Life to own —

    From Life to draw —

    But never tough the reservoir —

  • “Of Miidera

    The gate I would knock at—

    The moon of to-day.”

  • Of Nature I shall have enough

    When I have entered these

    Entitled to a Bumble bee's

    Familiarities.

  • Of nearness to her sundered Things

    The Soul has special times —

    When Dimness — looks the Oddity —

    Distinctness — easy — seems —


    The Shapes we buried, dwell about,

    Familiar, in the Rooms —

    Untarnished by the Sepulchre,

    The Mouldering Playmate comes —


    In just the Jacket...