Poetessa, nato venerdì 10 dicembre 1830 a Amherst, Massachusetts (USA - Stati Uniti d'America), morto sabato 15 maggio 1886 a Amherst, Massachusetts (USA - Stati Uniti d'America)
Triumph - may be of several kinds - There's Triumph in the Room When that Old Imperator - Death - By Faith - be overcome - There's Triumph of the finer mind When Truth - affronted long - Advance unmoved - to Her Supreme - Her God - Her only Throng -
A Triumph - when Temptation's Bribe Be slowly handed back - One eye upon the Heaven renounced - And One - upon the Rack -
Severer Triumph - by Himself Experienced - who pass Acquitted - from that Naked Bar - Jehovah's Countenance.
It was given to me by the Gods - When I was a little Girl - They given us Presents most - you know - When we are new - and small. I kept it in my Hand - I never put it down - I did not dare to eat - or sleep - For fear it would be gone - I heard such words as "Rich" - When hurrying to school - From lips at Corners of the Streets - And wrestled with a smile. Rich! 'Twas Myself - was rich - To take the name of Gold - And Gold to own - in solid Bars - The Difference - made me bold.
Love - thou art high - I cannot climb thee - But, were it Two - Who know but we - Taking turns - at the Chimborazo - Ducal - at last - stand up by thee - Love - thou art deep - I cannot cross thee - But, were there Two Instead of One - Rower, and Yacht - some sovreign Summer - Who knows - but we'd reach the Sun?
Love - thou are Vailed - A few - behold thee - Smile - and alter - and prattle - and die - Bliss - were an Oddity - without thee - Nicknamed by God - Eternity.
The Malay - took the Pearl - Not - I - the Earl - I - feared the Sea - too much Unsanctified - to touch - Praying that I might be Worthy - the Destiny - The Swarthy fellow swam - And bore my Jewel - Home -
Home to the Hut! What lot Had I - the Jewel - got - Borne on a Dusky Breast - I had not deemed a Vest Of Amber - fit -
The Negro never knew I - wooed it - too - To gain, or be undone - Alike to Him - One.
The Outer - from the Inner Derives it's Magnitude - 'Tis Duke, or Dwarf, according As is the central mood - The fine - unvarying Axis That regulates the Wheel - Though Spokes - spin - more conspicuous And fling a dust - the while.
The Inner - paints the Outer - The Brush without the Hand - It's Picture publishes - precise - As is the inner Brand -
On fine - Arterial Canvas - A Cheek - perchance a Brow - The Star's whole secret - in the Lake - Eyes were not meant to know.
I know some lonely Houses off the Road A Robber'd like the look of - Wooden barred, And Windows hanging low, Inviting to - A Portico, Where two could creep - One - hand the Tools - The other peep - To make sure All's Asleep - Old fashioned eyes - Not easy to surprise! How orderly the Kitchen'd look, by night, With just a Clock - But they could gag the Tick - And Mice wont bark - And so the Walls - dont tell - None - will -
A pair of Spectacles ajar just stir - An Almanac's aware - Was it the Mat - winked, Or a Nervous Star? The Moon - slides down the stair, To see who's there!
There's plunder - where - Tankard, or Spoon - Earring - or Stone - A Watch - Some Ancient Brooch To match the Grandmama - Staid sleeping - there -
Day - rattles - too Stealth's - slow - The Sun has got as far As the third Sycamore - Screams Chanticleer "Who's there"?
And Echoes - Trains away, Sneer - "Where"! While the old Couple, just astir, Fancy the Sunrise - left the door ajar!
Of Bronze - and Blaze - The North - Tonight - So adequate - it forms - So preconcerted with itself - So distant - to alarms - And Unconcern so sovereign To Universe, or me - Infects my simple spirit With Taints of Majesty - Till I take vaster attitudes - And strut upon my stem - Disdaining Men, and Oxygen, For Arrogance of them - My Splendors, are Menagerie - But their Completeless Show Will entertain the Centuries When I, am long ago, An Island in dishonored Grass - Whom none but Daisies, know.
How the old Mountains drip with Sunset How the Hemlocks burn - How the Dun Brake is draped in Cinder By the Wizard Sun - How the old Steeples hand the Scarlet Till the Ball is full - Have I the lip of the Flamingo That I dare to tell?
Then, how the Fire ebbs like Billows - Touching all the Grass With a departing - Sapphire - feature - As a Duchess passed -
How a small Dusk crawls on the Village Till the Houses blot And the odd Flambeau, no men carry Glimmer on the Street -
How it is Night - in Nest and Kennel - And where was the Wood - Just a Dome of Abyss is Bowing Into Solitude -
These are the Visions flitted Guido - Titian - never told - Domenichino dropped his pencil - Paralyzed, with Gold.
If your Nerve, deny you - Go above your Nerve - He can lean against the Grave, If he fear to swerve - That's a steady posture - Never any bend Held of those Brass arms - Best Giant made -
If your Soul seesaw - Lift the Flesh door - The Poltroon wants Oxygen - Nothing more.
I got so I could hear his name - Without - Tremendous gain - That Stop-sensation - on my Soul - And Thunder - in the Room - I got so I could walk across That Angle in the floor, Where he turned so, and I turned - how - And all our Sinew tore -
I got so I could stir the Box - In which his letters grew Without that forcing, in my breath - As Staples - driven through -
Could dimly recollect a Grace - I think, they call it "God" - Renowned to ease Extremity - When Formula, had failed -
And shape my Hands - Petition's way, Thò ignorant of a word That Ordination - utters -
My Business, with the Cloud, If any Power behind it, be, Not subject to Despair - It care, in some remoter way, For so minute affair As Misery - Itself, too vast, for interrupting - more.