I dreaded that first Robin, so,
But He is mastered, now,
I'm some accustomed to Him grown,
He hurts a little, though —
I thought If I could only live
Till that first Shout got by —
Not all Pianos in the Woods
Had power to mangle me —
I dared not meet the Daffodils —...
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...
Let my first Knowing be of thee
With morning's warming Light —
And my first Fearing, lest Unknowns
Engulf thee in the night —
The loveliness of Nature, always did
Delight me.
In the days of childhood; when
My young light heart, in all the buoyancy
Of its own bright imagination’s spell,
Beat in accordant consonance to all
For which it cherished an affinity;
The summer glory of the landscape, rous’d
...
My first well Day — since many ill —
I asked to go abroad,
And take the Sunshine in my hands,
And see the things in Pod —
A 'blossom just when I went in
To take my Chance with pain —
Uncertain if myself, or He,
Should prove the strongest One.
The Summer deepened, while...
DIXIT; et avertens roseâ cervice refulsit,
Ambrosiaeque comae divinum vertice odorem
Spiravere: pedes vestis defluxit ad imos,
Et vera incessu patuit Dea. —
SHE said; and turning, shew'd her wrinkled neck,
In scales and colour like a roach's back.
Forth from her greasy locks such odours...
That first Day, when you praised Me, Sweet,
And said that I was strong —
And could be mighty, if I liked —
That Day — the Days among —
Glows Central — like a Jewel
Between Diverging Golds —
The Minor One — that gleamed behind —
And Vaster — of the World's.
The first Day that I was a Life
I recollect it — How still —
That last Day that I was a Life
I recollect it — as well —
'Twas stiller — though the first
Was still —
"Twas empty — but the first
Was full —
This — was my finallest Occasion —
But then
...
The first Day's Night had come —
And grateful that a thing
So terrible — had been endured —
I told my Soul to sing —
She said her Strings were snapt —
Her Bow — to Atoms blown —
And so to mend her — gave me work
Until another Morn —
And then — a Day as huge
...
"North and South too many an hour
I've by the skipper held the wheel;
Seen too many a hissing shower
O'er my old sou'-wester reel."