• Yesterday is History

    Yesterday is History,

    'Tis so far away —

    Yesterday is Poetry —

    'Tis Philosophy —


    Yesterday is mystery —

    Where it is Today

    While we shrewdly speculate

    Flutter both away

  • You Are Old, Father William

  • You cannot make Remembrance grow

    You cannot make Remembrance grow

    When it has lost its Root —

    The tightening the Soil around

    And setting it upright

    Deceives perhaps the Universe

    But not retrieves the Plant —

    Real Memory, like Cedar Feet

    Is shod with Adamant —

    Nor can you cut Remembrance down

    When it...

  • You cannot put a Fire out —

    You cannot put a Fire out —

    A Thing that can ignite

    Can go, itself, without a Fan —

    Upon the slowest Night —


    You cannot fold a Flood —

    And put it in a Drawer —

    Because the Winds would find it out —

    And tell your Cedar Floor —

  • You cannot take itself

    You cannot take itself

    From any Human soul —

    That indestructible estate

    Enable him to dwell —

    Impregnable as Light

    That every man behold

    But take away as difficult

    As undiscovered Gold —

  • You constituted Time —

    You constituted Time —

    I deemed Eternity

    A Revelation of Yourself —

    'Twas therefore Deity


    The Absolute — removed

    The Relative away —

    That I unto Himself adjust

    My slow idolatry —

  • You dont believe I wont attempt to make ye


    * * *


    You dont believe I wont attempt to make ye

    You are asleep I wont attempt to wake ye

    Sleep on Sleep on while in your pleasant dreams

    Of Reason you may drink of Lifes clear streams
    5 Reason and Newton they...

  • You know that Portrait in the Moon —

    You know that Portrait in the Moon —

    So tell me who 'tis like —

    The very Brow — the stooping eyes —

    A fog for — Say — Whose Sake?


    The very Pattern of the Cheek —

    It varies — in the Chin —

    But — Ishmael — since we met — 'tis long —

    And fashions — intervene —


    When Moon's...

  • You left me — Sire — two Legacies —

    You left me — Sire — two Legacies —

    A Legacy of Love

    A Heavenly Father would suffice

    Had He the offer of —


    You left me Boundaries of Pain —

    Capacious as the Sea —

    Between Eternity and Time —

    Your Consciousness — and Me —

  • You love me — you are sure —

    You love me — you are sure —

    I shall not fear mistake —

    I shall not cheated wake —

    Some grinning morn —

    To find the Sunrise left —

    And Orchards — unbereft —

    And Dollie — gone!


    I need not start — you're sure —

    That night will never be —

    When frightened — home to...