• How happy is the little Stone

    That rambles in the Road alone,

    And doesn't care about Careers

    And Exigencies never fears —

    Whose Coat of elemental Brown

    A passing Universe put on,

    And independent as the Sun

    Associates or glows alone,

    Fulfilling absolute Decree

    In casual...

  • I begged a kiss of a little maid;

        Shyly, sweetly, she consented;

    Then of a sudden, all afraid,

        After she gave it, she repented;

    And now as penance for that one kiss

        She asks a poem — I'll give her this.


    But how can my song be my very best...

  • I cautious, scanned my little life —

    I winnowed what would fade

    From what would last till Heads like mine

    Should be a-dreaming laid.


    I put the latter in a Barn —

    The former, blew away.

    I went one winter morning

    And lo - my priceless Hay


    Was not upon the "Scaffold" —...

  • I prayed, at first, a little Girl,

    Because they told me to —

    But stopped, when qualified to guess

    How prayer would feel — to me —


    If I believed God looked around,

    Each time my Childish eye

    Fixed full, and steady, on his own

    In Childish honesty —


    And told him what I'd...

  • I'm the little "Heart's Ease"!

    I don't care for pouting skies!

    If the Butterfly delay

    Can I, therefore, stay away?


    If the Coward Bumble Bee

    In his chimney corner stay,

    I, must resoluter be!

    Who'll apologize for me?


    Dear, Old fashioned, little flower!

    Eden...

  • It's such a little thing to weep —

    So short a thing to sigh —

    And yet — by Trades — the size of these

    We men and women die!

  • Its little Ether Hood

    Doth sit upon its Head —

    The millinery supple

    Of the sagacious God —


    Till when it slip away

    A nothing at a time —

    And Dandelion's Drama

    Expires in a stem.

  • My Heart upon a little Plate

    Her Palate to delight

    A Berry or a Bun, would be,

    Might it an Apricot!

  • Nobody knows this little Rose.

    It might a pilgrim be

    Did I not take it from the ways

    And lift it up to Thee. -

    Only a Bee will miss it -

    Only a Butterfly,

    Hastening from far journey

    On it's breast - to lie -

    Only a Bird - will wonder -

    Only a Breeze will sigh,
    ...

  • Our little Kinsmen — after Rain

    In plenty may be seen,

    A Pink and Pulpy multitude

    The tepid Ground upon.


    A needless life, it seemed to me

    Until a little Bird

    As to a Hospitality

    Advanced and breakfasted.


    As I of He, so God of Me

    I pondered, may have judged...