The Judge is like the Owl —
I've heard my Father tell —
And Owls do build in Oaks —
So here's an Amber Sill —
That slanted in my Path —
When going to the Barn —
And if it serve You for a House —
Itself is not in vain —
About the price — 'tis small —
I only...
The Juggler's Hat her Country is —
The Mountain Gorse — the Bee's!
The Lady feeds Her little Bird
At rarer intervals —
The little Bird would not dissent
But meekly recognize
The Gulf between the Hand and Her
And crumbless and afar
And fainting, on Her yellow Knee
Fall softly, and adore —
The largest Fire ever known
Occurs each Afternoon —
Discovered is without surprise
Proceeds without concern —
Consumes and no report to men
An Occidental Town,
Rebuilt another morning
To be again burned down.
She mentioned, and forgot;
Then lightly as a reed
Bent to the water, shivered scarce,
Consented, and was dead.
And we, we placed the hair,
And drew the head erect;
And then an awful leisure was,
Our faith to regulate.
The last of Summer is Delight —
Deterred by Retrospect.
'Tis Ecstasy's revealed Review —
Enchantment's Syndicate.
To meet it — nameless as it is —
Without celestial Mail —
Audacious as without a Knock
To walk within the Veil.
The Life that tied too tight escapes
Will ever after run
With a prudential look behind
And spectres of the Rein —
The Horse that scents the living Grass
And sees the Pastures smile
Will be retaken with a shot
If he is caught at all —
The Life we have is very great.
The Life that we shall see
Surpasses it, we know, because
It is Infinity.
But when all Space has been beheld
And all Dominion shown
The smallest Human Heart's extent
Reduces it to none.
The Lightning is a yellow Fork
From Tables in the sky
By inadvertent fingers dropt
The awful Cutlery
Of mansions never quite disclosed
And never quite concealed
The Apparatus of the Dark
To ignorance revealed.
The Lightning playeth — all the while —
But when He singeth — then —
Ourselves are conscious He exist —
And we approach Him — stern —
With Insulators — and a Glove —
Whose short — sepulchral Bass
Alarms us — tho' His Yellow feet
May pass — and counterpass —
Upon the...