"Lethe" in my flower, Of which they who drink, In the fadeless Orchards Hear the bobolink! Merely flake or petal As the Eye beholds Jupiter! My father! I perceive the rose!
I've got an arrow here. Loving the hand that sent it I the dart revere. Fell, they will say, in "skirmish"! Vanquished, my soul will know By but a simple arrow Sped by an archer's bow.
If ever the lid gets off my head And lets the brain away The fellow will go where he belonged - Without a hint from me, And the world - if the world be looking on - Will see how far from home It is possible for sense to live The soul there - all the time.
If all the griefs I am to have Would only come today, I am so happy I believe They'd laugh and run away. If all the joys I am to have Would only come today, They could not be so big as this That happens to me now.
I took one Draught of Life - I'll tell you what I paid - Precisely an existence - The market price, they said. They weighed me, Dust by Dust - They balanced Film with Film, Then handed me my Being's worth - A single Dram of Heaven!
How dare the robins sing, When men and women hear Who since they went to their account Have settled with the year! - Paid all that life had earned In one consummate bill. And now, what life or death can do Is immaterial. Insulting is the sun To him whose mortal light Beguiled of immortality Bequeath him to the night. Extinct be every hum In deference to him Whose garden wrestled with the dew, At daybreak overcome!
High from the earth I heard a bird; He trod upon the trees As he esteemed them trifles, And then he spied a breeze, And situated softly Upon a pile of wind Which in a perturbation Nature had left behind. A joyous going fellow I gathered from his talk Which both of benediction And badinage partook Without apparent burden. I subsequently learned He was the faithful father Of a dependent brood. And this untoward transport His remedy for care, - A contrast to our respites. How different we are!
Her face was in a bed of hair, Like flowers in a plot - Her hand was whiter than the sperm That feeds the sacred light. Her tongue more tender than the tune That totters in the leaves - Who hears may be incredulous, Who witnesses, believes.
It was a quiet Way - He asked if I was His - I made no answer of the Tongue, But answer of the Eyes - And then he bore me high Before this mortal noise With swiftness, as of Chariots - And distance - as of Wheels -
The World did drop away As Counties - from the feet Of Him that leaneth in Balloon - Upon an Ether Street -
The Gulf behind - was not - The Continents - were new - Eternity - it was - before Eternity was due -
No Seasons were - to us - It was not Night - nor Noon - For Sunrise - stopped upon the Place - And fastened it - in Dawn -
I never saw a Moor - I never saw the Sea - Yet know I how the Heather looks And what a Billow be - I never spoke with God Nor visited in Heaven - Yet certain am I of the spot As if the Checks were given. Non ho mai visto una Brughiera - Non ho mai visto il Mare - Eppure so come appare l'Erica E che cos'è un'Onda - Non ho mai parlato con Dio Né visitato il Cielo - Eppure certa son io del luogo Come se il Biglietto fosse consegnato.