Emotions and Feelings

Good night! which put the candle out?

Good night! which put the candle out?
A jealous zephyr, not a doubt.

Ah! friend, you little knew
How long at that celestial wick
The angels labored diligent;

Extinguished, now, for you!

It might have been the lighthouse spark
Some sailor, rowing in the dark,

Had importuned to see!
It might have been the waning lamp
That lit the drummer from the camp

To purer reveille!

God permit industrious angels

God permit industrious angels
Afternoons to play.
I met one, -- forgot my school-mates,
All, for him, straightaway.


God calls home the angels promptly
At the setting sun;
I missed mine. How dreary marbles,
After playing the Crown!

God permit industrious angels

God permit industrious angels
Afternoons to play.
I met one, -- forgot my school-mates,
All, for him, straightaway.


God calls home the angels promptly
At the setting sun;
I missed mine. How dreary marbles,
After playing the Crown!

Going to him! Happy letter! Tell him--

Going to him! Happy letter! Tell him--
Tell him the page I didn't write;
Tell him I only said the syntax,
And left the verb and the pronoun out.


Tell him just how the fingers hurried
Then how they waded, slow, slow, slow-
And then you wished you had eyes in your pages,
So you could see what moved them so.


'Tell him it wasn't a practised writer,
You guessed, from the way the sentence toiled;
You could hear the bodice tug, behind you,
As if it held but the might of a child;
You almost pitied it, you, it worked so.
Tell him--No, you may quibble there,
For it would split his heart to know it,
And then you and I were silenter.


'Tell him night finished before we finished
And the old clock kept neighing 'day!'
And you got sleepy and begged to be ended--
What could it hinder so, to say?
Tell him just how she sealed you, cautious
But if he ask where you are hid
Until to-morrow,--happy letter!
Gesture, coquette, and shake your head!'

Garland for Queens, may be

34

Garland for Queens, may beLaurels-
for rare degree
Of soul or sword.
Ah-but remembering meAh-
but remembering thee-
Nature in chivalry-
Nature in charity-
Nature in equity-
This Rose ordained!

From Cocoon forth a Butterfly

354

From Cocoon forth a Butterfly
As Lady from her Door
Emerged-a Summer Afternoon-
Repairing Everywhere-

Without Design-that I could trace
Except to stray abroad
On Miscellaneous Enterprise
The Clovers-understood-

Her pretty Parasol be seen
Contracting in a Field
Where Men made Hay-
Then struggling hard
With an opposing Cloud-

Where Parties-Phantom as Herself-
To Nowhere-seemed to go
In purposeless Circumference-
As 'twere a Tropic Show-

And notwithstanding Bee-that worked-
And Flower-that zealous blew-
This Audience of Idleness
Disdained them, from the Sky-

Till Sundown crept-a steady Tide-
And Men that made the Hay-
And Afternoon-and ButterflyExtinguished-
in the Sea-

Forget! The lady with the Amulet

438

Forget! The lady with the Amulet
Forget she wore it at her Heart
Because she breathed against
Was Treason twixt?

Deny! Did Rose her Bee-
For Privilege of Play
Or Wile of Butterfly
Or Opportunity-Her Lord away?

The lady with the Amulet-will face-
The Bee-in Mausoleum laid-
Discard his Bride-
But longer than the little Rill-
That cooled the Forehead of the Hill-
While Other-went the Sea to fill-
And Other-went to turn the MillI'll
do thy Will-

Forever at His side to walk

246

Forever at His side to walk-
The smaller of the two!
Brain of His Brain-
Blood of His Blood-
Two lives-One Being-now-

Forever of His fate to taste-
If grief-the largest part-
If joy-to put my piece away
For that beloved Heart-

All life-to know each other-
Whom we can never learn-
And bye and bye-a Change-
Called Heaven-
Rapt Neighborhoods of Men-
Just finding out-what puzzled us-
Without the lexicon!

For each ecstatic instant

For each ecstatic instant
We must an anguish pay
In keen and quivering ratio
To the ectasty.


For each beloved hour
Sharp pittances of years,
Bitter contested farthings
And coffers heaped with tears.

For each ecstatic instant

For each ecstatic instant
We must an anguish pay
In keen and quivering ratio
To the ectasty.


For each beloved hour
Sharp pittances of years,
Bitter contested farthings
And coffers heaped with tears.

First Robin

I dreaded that first robin so,
But he is mastered now,
And I'm 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,
For fear their yellow gown
Would pierce me with a fashion
So foreign to my own.


I wished the grass would hurry,
So when 't was time to see,
He'd be too tall, the tallest one
Could stretch to look at me.


I could not bear the bees should come,
I wished they'd stay away
In those dim countries where they go:
What word had they for me?


They're here, though; not a creature failed,
No blossom stayed away
In gentle deference to me,
The Queen of Calvary.


Each one salutes me as he goes,
And I my childish plumes
Lift, in bereaved acknowledgment
Of their unthinking drums.

Exultation is the going

76

Exultation is the going
Of an inland soul to sea,
Past the houses-past the headlands-
Into deep Eternity-


Bred as we, among the mountains,
Can the sailor understand
The divine intoxication
Of the first league out from land?

Expectation—is Contentment

807

Expectation—is Contentment—
Gain—Satiety—
But Satiety—Conviction
Of Necessity


Of an Austere trait in Pleasure—
Good, without alarm
Is a too established Fortune—
Danger—deepens Sum—

Exclusion (The soul selects her own society)

The soul selects her own society,

Then shuts the door;

On her divine majority

Obtrude no more.

Unmoved, she notes the chariot's pausing

At her low gate;

Unmoved, an emperor is kneeling

Upon her mat.

I've known her from an ample nation

Choose one

Then close the valves of her attention

Like stone.

Except the Heaven had come so near

472

Except the Heaven had come so near-
So seemed to choose My Door-
The Distance would not haunt me so-
I had not hoped-before-

But just to hear the Grace depart-
I never thought to see-
Afflicts me with a Double loss'
Tis lost-and lost to me-

Except the Heaven had come so near

472

Except the Heaven had come so near-
So seemed to choose My Door-
The Distance would not haunt me so-
I had not hoped-before-

But just to hear the Grace depart-
I never thought to see-
Afflicts me with a Double loss'
Tis lost-and lost to me-

Empty my Heart, of Thee

587

Empty my Heart, of Thee-
Its single Artery-
Begin, and leave Thee out-
Simply Extinction's Date-

Much Billow hath the Sea-
One Baltic-They-
Subtract Thyself, in play,
And not enough of me
Is left-to put away"
Myself" meanth Thee-

Erase the Root-no TreeThee-
then-no me-
The Heavens strippedEternity's
vast pocket, picked-

Elysium is as far as to

Elysium is as far as to
The very nearest Room
If in that Room a Friend await
Felicity or Doom--

What fortitude the Soul contains
That it can so endure
The accent of a coming Foot--
The opening of a Door--

Dying! To be afraid of thee

831

Dying! To be afraid of thee
One must to thine Artillery
Have left exposed a Friend-
Than thine old Arrow is a Shot
Delivered straighter to the Heart
The leaving Love behind.


Not for itself, the Dust is shy,
But, enemy, Beloved be
Thy Batteries divorce.
Fight sternly in a Dying eye
Two Armies, Love and Certainty
And Love and the Reverse.

Dying! To be afraid of thee

831

Dying! To be afraid of thee
One must to thine Artillery
Have left exposed a Friend-
Than thine old Arrow is a Shot
Delivered straighter to the Heart
The leaving Love behind.


Not for itself, the Dust is shy,
But, enemy, Beloved be
Thy Batteries divorce.
Fight sternly in a Dying eye
Two Armies, Love and Certainty
And Love and the Reverse.

Each Scar I'll keep for Him

877

Each Scar I'll keep for Him
Instead I'll say of Gem
In His long Absence worn
A Costlier one

But every Tear I bore
Were He to count them o'er
His own would fall so more
I'll mis sum them.

Doubt Me! My Dim Companion!

275

Doubt Me! My Dim Companion!
Why, God, would be content
With but a fraction of the Life-
Poured thee, without a stint-
The whole of me-forever-
What more the Woman can,
Say quick, that I may dower thee
With last Delight I own!

It cannot be my Spirit-
For that was thine, before-
I ceded all of Dust I knew-
What Opulence the more
Had I-a freckled Maiden,
Whose farthest of Degree,
Was-that she might-
Some distant Heaven,
Dwell timidly, with thee!

Sift her, from Brow to Barefoot!
Strain till your last Surmise-
Drop, like a Tapestry, away,
Before the Fire's Eyes-
Winnow her finest fondness-
But hallow just the snow
Intact, in Everlasting flake-
Oh, Caviler, for you!

Doubt Me! My Dim Companion!

275

Doubt Me! My Dim Companion!
Why, God, would be content
With but a fraction of the Life-
Poured thee, without a stint-
The whole of me-forever-
What more the Woman can,
Say quick, that I may dower thee
With last Delight I own!

It cannot be my Spirit-
For that was thine, before-
I ceded all of Dust I knew-
What Opulence the more
Had I-a freckled Maiden,
Whose farthest of Degree,
Was-that she might-
Some distant Heaven,
Dwell timidly, with thee!

Sift her, from Brow to Barefoot!
Strain till your last Surmise-
Drop, like a Tapestry, away,
Before the Fire's Eyes-
Winnow her finest fondness-
But hallow just the snow
Intact, in Everlasting flake-
Oh, Caviler, for you!

Distrustful of the Gentian

20

Distrustful of the Gentian-
And just to turn away,
The fluttering of her fringes
Child my perfidy-
Weary for my-----
I will singing go-
I shall not feel the sleet-then-
I shall not fear the snow.

Flees so the phantom meadow
Before the breathless Bee-
So bubble brooks in deserts
On Ears that dying lie-
Burn so the Evening Spires
To Eyes that Closing go-
Hangs so distant Heaven-
To a hand below.