Wild Nights - Wild Nights! Were I with thee Wild Nights should be Our luxury! Futile - the Winds - To a Heart in port - Done with the Compass - Done with the Chart!
Rowing in Eden - Ah, the Sea! Might I but moor - Tonight - In Thee!
Why - do they shut Me out of Heaven? Did I sing - too loud? But - I can say a little "Minor" Timid as a Bird! Would'nt the Angels try me - Just - once - more - Just - see - if I troubled them - But dont - shut the door!
Oh, if I - were the Gentleman In the "White Robe" - And they - were the little Hand - that knocked - Could - I - forbid?
What would I give to see his face? I'd give - I'd give my life - of course - But that is not enough! Stop just a minute - let me think! I'd give my biggest Bobolink! That makes two - Him - and Life! You know who "June" is - I'd give her - Roses a day from Zenzibar - And Lily tubes - like Wells - Bees - by the furlong - Straits of Blue Navies of Butterflies - sailed thro' - And dappled Cowslip Dells - Then I have "shares" in Primrose "Banks" - Daffodil Dowries - spicy "Stocks" - Dominions - broad as Dew - Bags of Doubloons - adventurous Bees Brought me - from firmamental seas - And Purple - from Peru -
Now - have I bought it - "Shylock"? Say! Sign me the Bond! "I vow to pay To Her - who pledges this - One hour - of her Sovereign's face"! Extatic Contract! Niggard Grace! My Kingdom's worth of Bliss!
Forever at His side to walk - The smaller of the two! Brain of His Brain - Blood of His Blood - Two lives - One Being - now - Forever of His fate to taste - If grief - the largest part - If joy - to put my piece away For that beloved Heart -
All life - to know each other - Whom we can never learn - And bye and bye - a Change - Called Heaven - Rapt Neighborhoods of Men - Just finding out - what puzzled us - Without the lexicon!
I held a Jewel in my fingers - And went to sleep - The day was warm, and winds were prosy - I said "'Twill keep" - I woke - and chid my honest fingers, The Gem was gone - And now, an Amethyst remembrance Is all I own.
I've known a Heaven, like a Tent - To wrap it's shining Yards - Pluck up it's stakes, and disappear - Without the sound of Boards Or Rip of Nail - Or Carpenter - But just the miles of Stare - That signalize a Show's Retreat - In North America - No Trace - no Figment of the Thing That dazzled, Yesterday, No Ring - no Marvel - Men, and Feats - Dissolved as utterly - As Bird's far Navigation Discloses just a Hue - A plash of Oars, a Gaiety - Then swallowed up, of View.
Ah, Moon - and Star! You are very far - But were no one Farther than you - Do you think I'd stop For a Firmament - Or a Cubit - or so? I could borrow a Bonnet Of the Lark - And a Chamois' Silver Boot - And a stirrup of an Antelope - And be with you - Tonight!
But, Moon, and Star, Though you're very far - There is one - farther than you - He - is more than a firmament - from Me - So I can never go!
"Heaven" - is what I cannot reach! The Apple on the Tree - Provided it do hopeless - hang - That - "Heaven" is - to Me! The Color, on the Cruising Cloud - The interdicted Land - Behind the Hill - the House behind - There - Paradise - is found!
Her teazing Purples - Afternoons - The credulous - decoy - Enamored - of the Conjuror - That spurned us - Yesterday!
Kill your Balm - and it's Odors bless you - Bare your Jessamine - to the storm - And she will fling her maddest perfume - Haply - your Summer night to Charm - Stab the Bird - that built in your bosom - Oh, could you catch her last Refrain - Bubble! "Forgive" - "Some better" - Bubble! "Carol for Him - when I am gone"!
I think just how my shape will rise - When I shall be "forgiven" - Till Hair - and Eyes - and timid Head - Are out of sight - in Heaven - I think just how my lips will weigh - With shapeless - quivering - prayer - That you - so late - "Consider" me - The "Sparrow" of your Care -
I mind me that of Anguish - sent - Some drifts were moved away - Before my simple bosom - broke - And why not this - if they?
And so I con that thing - "forgiven" - Until - delirious - borne - By my long bright - and longer - trust - I drop my Heart - unshriven!