She dealt her pretty words like Blades - How glittering they shone - And every One unbared a Nerve Or wantoned with a Bone - She never deemed - she hurt - That - is not Steel's Affair - A vulgar grimace in the Flesh - How ill the Creatures bear -
To Ache is human - not polite - The Film upon the eye Mortality's old Custom - Just locking up - to Die.
I had no time to Hate - Because The Grave would hinder Me - And Life was not so Ample I Could finish - Enmity - Nor had I time to Love - But since Some Industry must be - The little Toil of Love - I thought Be large enough for Me.
No Man can compass a Despair - As round a Goalless Road No faster than a Mile at once The Traveller proceed - Unconscious of the Width - Unconscious that the Sun Be setting on His progress - So accurate the one
At estimating Pain - Whose own - has just begun - His ignorance - the Angel That pilot Him along.
I meant to have but modest needs - Such as Content - and Heaven - Within my income - these could lie And Life and I - keep even - But since the last - included both - It would suffice my Prayer But just for One - to stipulate - And Grace would grant the Pair -
And so - upon this wise - I prayed - Great Spirit - Give to me A Heaven not so large as Your's, But large enough - for me -
A Smile suffused Jehovah's face - The Cherubim - withdrew - Grave Saints stole out to look at me - And showed their dimples - too -
I left the Place - with all my might - I threw my Prayer away - The Quiet Ages picked it up - And Judgment - twinkled - too - That one so honest - be extant - It take the Tale for true - That "Whatsoever Ye shall ask - Itself be given You" -
But I, grown shrewder - scan the Skies With a suspicious Air - As Children - swindled for the first All Swindlers - be - infer.
Doom is the House without the Door - 'Tis entered from the Sun - And then the Ladder's thrown away, Because Escape - is done - 'Tis varied by the Dream Of what they do outside - Where Squirrels play - and Berries dye - And Hemlocks - bow - to God.
They put Us far apart - As separate as Sea And Her unsown Peninsula - We signified "These see" - They took away our Eyes - They thwarted Us with Guns - "I see Thee" each responded straight Through Telegraphic Signs -
With Dungeons - They devised - But through their thickest skill - And their opaquest Adamant - Our Souls saw - just as well -
They summoned Us to die - With sweet alacrity We stood upon our stapled feet - Condemned - but just - to see -
Permission to recant - Permission to forget - We turned our backs upon the Sun For perjury of that -
Not Either - noticed Death - Of Paradise - aware - Each other's Face - was all the Disc Each other's setting - saw.
I am ashamed - I hide - What right have I - to be a Bride - So late a Dowerless Girl - Nowhere to hide my dazzled Face - No one to teach me that new Grace - Nor introduce - my Soul - Me to adorn - How - tell - Trinket - to make Me beautiful - Fabrics of Cashmere - Never a Gown of Dun - more - Raiment instead - of Pompadour - For Me - My Soul - to wear -
Fingers - to frame my Round Hair Oval - as Feudal Ladies wore - Far Fashions - Fair - Skill to hold my Brow like an Earl - Plead - like a Whippowil - Prove - like a Pearl - Then, for Character -
Fashion My Spirit quaint - white - Quick - like a Liquor - Gay - like Light - Bring Me my best Pride - No more ashamed - No more to hide - Meek - let it be - too proud - for Pride - Baptized - this Day - a Bride.
A Night - there lay the Days between - The Day that was Before - And Day that was Behind - were One - And now - 'twas Night - was here - Slow - Night - that must be watched away - As Grains upon a shore - Too imperceptible to note - Till it be Night - no more.
I am alive - I guess - The Branches on my Hand Are full of Morning Glory - And at my finger's end - The Carmine - tingles warm - And if I hold a Glass Across my Mouth - it blurs it - Physician's - proof of Breath -
I am alive - because I am not in a Room - The Parlor - Commonly - it is - So Visitors may come -
And lean - and view it sidewise - And add "How cold - it grew" - And "Was it conscious - when it stepped In Immortality? "
I am alive - because I do not own a House - Entitled to myself - precise - And fitting no one else -
And marked my Girlhood's name - So Visitors may know Which Door is mine - and not not mistake - And try another Key -
How good - to be alive! How infinite - to be Alive - two-fold - The Birth I had - And this - besides, in Thee!
The Red - Blaze - is the Morning - The Violet - is Noon - The Yellow - Day - is falling - And after that - is None - But Miles of Sparks - at Evening - Reveal the Width that burned - The Territory Argent - that never yet - consumed.