I said,–for Love was laggard, O, Love was slow to come,–“I’ll hear his step and know his step when I am warm in bed;But I’ll never leave my pillow, though there be someAs would let him in–and take him in with tears!” I said.I lay,–for Love was laggard, O, he came not until dawn,–I lay […]

The trees along this city street,Save for the traffic and the trains,Would make a sound as thin and sweetAs trees in country lanes. And people standing in their shadeOut of a shower, undoubtedlyWould hear such music as is madeUpon a country tree. Oh, little leaves that are so dumbAgainst the shrieking city air,I watch you […]

Death, I say, my heart is bowedUnto thine,–O mother!This red gown will make a shroudGood as any other! (I, that would not wait to wearMy own bridal things,In a dress dark as my hairMade my answerings. I, to-night, that till he cameCould not, could not wait,In a gown as bright as flameHeld for them the […]

All the dog-wood blossoms are underneath the tree!Ere spring was going–ah, spring is gone!And there comes no summer to the like of you and me,–Blossom time is early, but no fruit sets on. All the dog-wood blossoms are underneath the tree,Browned at the edges, turned in a day;And I would with all my heart they […]

No matter what I say,All that I really loveIs the rain that flattens on the bay,And the eel-grass in the cove;The jingle-shells that lie and bleachAt the tide-line, and the traceOf higher tides along the beach:Nothing in this place.

Mindful of you the sodden earth in spring,And all the flowers that in the springtime grow,And dusty roads, and thistles, and the slowRising of the round moon, all throats that singThe summer through, and each departing wing,And all the nests that the bared branches show,And all winds that in any weather blow,And all the storms […]

Ah, could I lay me down in this long grassAnd close my eyes, and let the quiet windBlow over me–I am so tired, so tiredOf passing pleasant places! All my life,Following Care along the dusty road,Have I looked back at loveliness and sighed;Yet at my hand an unrelenting handTugged ever, and I passed. All my […]

Time does not bring relief; you all have liedWho told me time would ease me of my pain!I miss him in the weeping of the rain;I want him at the shrinking of the tide;The old snows melt from every mountain-side,And last year’s leaves are smoke in every lane;But last year’s bitter loving must remainHeaped on […]

Thou art not lovelier than lilacs,–no,Nor honeysuckle; thou art not more fairThan small white single poppies,–I can bearThy beauty; though I bend before thee, thoughFrom left to right, not knowing where to go,I turn my troubled eyes, nor here nor thereFind any refuge from thee, yet I swearSo has it been with mist,–with moonlight so. […]

I cannot but rememberWhen the year grows old–October–November–How she disliked the cold! She used to watch the swallowsGo down across the sky,And turn from the windowWith a little sharp sigh. And often when the brown leavesWere brittle on the ground,And the wind in the chimneyMade a melancholy sound, She had a look about herThat I […]

Death devours all lovely things;Lesbia with her sparrowShares the darkness,–presentlyEvery bed is narrow. Unremembered as old rainDries the sheer libation,And the little petulant handIs an annotation. After all, my erstwhile dear,My no longer cherished,Need we say it was not love,Now that love is perished?

White with daisies and red with sorrelAnd empty, empty under the sky!–Life is a quest and love a quarrel–Here is a place for me to lie. Daisies spring from damned seeds,And this red fire that here I seeIs a worthless crop of crimson weeds,Cursed by farmers thriftily. But here, unhated for an hour,The sorrel runs […]

Ho, Giant! This is I!I have built me a bean-stalk into your sky!La,–but it’s lovely, up so high! This is how I came,–I putHere my knee, there my foot,Up and up, from shoot to shoot–And the blessed bean-stalk thinningLike the mischief all the time,Till it took me rocking, spinning,In a dizzy, sunny circle,Making angles with […]

This door you might not open, and you did;So enter now, and see for what slight thingYou are betrayed. . . . Here is no treasure hid,No cauldron, no clear crystal mirroringThe sought-for truth, no heads of women slainFor greed like yours, no writhings of distress,But only what you see. . . . Look yet […]

There will be rose and rhododendronWhen you are dead and under ground;Still will be heard from white syringasHeavy with bees, a sunny sound; Still will the tamaracks be rainingAfter the rain has ceased, and stillWill there be robins in the stubble,Brown sheep upon the warm green hill. Spring will not ail nor autumn falter;Nothing will […]

If I should learn, in some quite casual way,That you were gone, not to return again–Read from the back-page of a paper, say,Held by a neighbor in a subway train,How at the corner of this avenueAnd such a street (so are the papers filled)A hurrying man–who happened to be you–At noon to-day had happened to […]

Not in this chamber only at my birth–When the long hours of that mysterious nightWere over, and the morning was in sight–I cried, but in strange places, steppe and firthI have not seen, through alien grief and mirth;And never shall one room contain me quiteWho in so many rooms first saw the light,Child of all […]

Down, you mongrel, Death!Back into your kennel!I have stolen breathIn a stalk of fennel!You shall scratch and you shall whineMany a night, and you shall worryMany a bone, before you buryOne sweet bone of mine! When shall I be dead?When my flesh is withered,And above my headYellow pollen gatheredAll the empty afternoon?When sweet lovers pause […]

For the sake of some thingsThat be now no moreI will strew rushesOn my chamber-floor,I will plant bergamotAt my kitchen-door. For the sake of dim thingsThat were once so plainI will set a barrelOut to catch the rain,I will hang an iron potOn an iron crane. Many things be dead and goneThat were brave and […]

April this year, not otherwiseThan April of a year ago,Is full of whispers, full of sighs,Of dazzling mud and dingy snow;Hepaticas that pleased you soAre here again, and butterflies. There rings a hammering all day,And shingles lie about the doors;In orchards near and far awayThe grey wood-pecker taps and bores;The men are merry at their […]