Except to heaven, she is nought;Except for angels, lone;Except to some wide-wandering bee,A flower superfluous blown; Except for winds, provincial;Except by butterflies,Unnoticed as a single dewThat on the acre lies. The smallest housewife in the grass,Yet take her from the lawn,And somebody has lost the faceThat made existence home!

At last to be identified!At last, the lamps upon thy side,The rest of life to see!Past midnight, past the morning star!Past sunrise! Ah! what leagues there areBetween our feet and day!

She went as quiet as the dewFrom a familiar flower.Not like the dew did she returnAt the accustomed hour! She dropt as softly as a starFrom out my summer’s eve;Less skilful than LeverrierIt’s sorer to believe!

Because I could not stop for Death,He kindly stopped for me;The carriage held but just ourselvesAnd Immortality. We slowly drove, he knew no haste,And I had put awayMy labor, and my leisure too,For his civility. We passed the school where children played,Their lessons scarcely done;We passed the fields of gazing grain,We passed the setting sun. […]

Two swimmers wrestled on the sparUntil the morning sun,When one turned smiling to the land.O God, the other one! The stray ships passing spied a faceUpon the waters borne,With eyes in death still begging raised,And hands beseeching thrown.

The daisy follows soft the sun,And when his golden walk is done,Sits shyly at his feet.He, waking, finds the flower near.“Wherefore, marauder, art thou here?”“Because, sir, love is sweet!” We are the flower, Thou the sun!Forgive us, if as days decline,We nearer steal to Thee, —Enamoured of the parting west,The peace, the flight, the amethyst,Night’s […]

Hope is a subtle glutton; He feeds upon the fair; And yet, inspected closely, What abstinence is there! His is the halcyon table That never seats but one, And whatsoever is consumed The same amounts remain.

Superiority to fate Is difficult to learn. ‘T is not conferred by any, But possible to earn A pittance at a time, Until, to her surprise, The soul with strict economy Subsists till Paradise.

‘T is little I could care for pearls Who own the ample sea; Or brooches, when the Emperor With rubies pelteth me; Or gold, who am the Prince of Mines; Or diamonds, when I see A diadem to fit a dome Continual crowning me.

Could mortal lip divine The undeveloped freight Of a delivered syllable, ‘T would crumble with the weight.

If the foolish call them ‘flowers,’ Need the wiser tell? If the savans ‘classify’ them, It is just as well! Those who read the Revelations Must not criticise Those who read the same edition With beclouded eyes! Could we stand with that old Moses Canaan denied, — Scan, like him, the stately landscape On the […]

How still the bells in steeples stand, Till, swollen with the sky, They leap upon their silver feet In frantic melody!

Drowning is not so pitiful As the attempt to rise. Three times, ‘t is said, a sinking man Comes up to face the skies, And then declines forever To that abhorred abode Where hope and he part company, — For he is grasped of God. The Maker’s cordial visage, However good to see, Is shunned, […]

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!

To venerate the simple days Which lead the seasons by, Needs but to remember That from you or me They may take the trifle Termed mortality! To invest existence with a stately air, Needs but to remember That the acorn there Is the egg of forests For the upper air!

A word is dead When it is said, Some say. I say it just Begins to live That day.

Heaven is what I cannot reach! The apple on the tree, Provided it do hopeless hang, That ‘heaven’ is, to me. The color on the cruising cloud, The interdicted ground Behind the hill, the house behind, — There Paradise is found! p>

Forbidden fruit a flavor has That lawful orchards mocks; How luscious lies the pea within The pod that Duty locks!

Few get enough, — enough is one; To that ethereal throng Have not each one of us the right To stealthily belong?

From all the jails the boys and girls Ecstatically leap, — Beloved, only afternoon That prison doesn’t keep. They storm the earth and stun the air, A mob of solid bliss. Alas! that frowns could lie in wait For such a foe as this!