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.
How noteless Men, and Pleiads, stand, Until a sudden sky Reveals the fact that One is rapt Forever from the Eye - Members of the Invisible, Existing, while we stare, In Leagueless Opportunity, O'ertakenless, as the Air -
Why did'nt we detain Them? The Heavens with a smile, Sweep by our disappointed Heads Without a syllable -.
'Tis so appalling - it exhilarates - So over Horror, it half Captivates - The Soul stares after it, secure - To know the worst, leaves no dread more - To scan a Ghost, is faint - But grappling, conquers it - How easy, Torment, now - Suspense kept sawing so -
The Truth, is Bald, and Cold - But that will hold - If any are not sure - We show them - prayer - But we, who know, Stop hoping, now -
Looking at Death, is Dying - Just let go the Breath - And not the pillow at your Cheek So Slumbereth -
Others, Can wrestle - Your's, is done - And so of Wo, bleak dreaded - come, It sets the Fright at liberty - And Terror's free - Gay, Ghastly, Holiday!
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, And Mourners to and fro Kept treading - treading - till it seemed That Sense was breaking through - And when they all were seated, A Service, like a Drum - Kept beating - beating - till I thought My Mind was going numb -
And then I heard them lift a Box And creak across my Soul With those same Boots of Lead, again, Then Space - began to toll,
As all the Heavens were a Bell, And Being, but an Ear, And I, and Silence, some strange Race Wrecked, solitary, here -
And then a Plank in Reason, broke, And I dropped down, and down - And hit a World, at every plunge, And Finished knowing - then.
Annoda i Lacci alla mia Vita, Signore, Poi, sarò pronta ad andare! Solo un'occhiata ai Cavalli - In fretta! Potrà bastare! Mettimi dal lato più sicuro - Così non cadrò - Visto che dobbiamo cavalcare verso il Giudizio - E una parte, è in discesa - Ma non mi curo dei precipizi - E non mi curo del Mare - Sorretta saldamente nell'Immortale Corsa - Dalla mia stessa Scelta, e da Te - Addio alla Vita che ho vissuto - E al Mondo che ho conosciuto - E Baciate le Colline, per me, basta una volta - Ora - sono pronta ad andare!
Tie the Strings to my Life, My Lord, Then, I am ready to go! Just a look at the Horses - Rapid! That will do! Put me in on the firmest side - So I shall never fall - For we must ride to the Judgment - And it's partly, down Hill -
But never I mind the steepest - And never I mind the Sea - Held fast in Everlasting Race - By my own Choice, and Thee -
Goodbye to the Life I used to live - And the World I used to know - And kiss the Hills, for me, just once - Now - I am ready to go!