Cocoon above! Cocoon below!
Stealthy Cocoon, why hide you so
What all the world suspect?
An hour, and gay on every tree
Your secret, perched in extasy
Defies imprisonment!
An hour in chrysalis to pass -
Then gay above receding grass
A Butterfly to go!
A moment to interrogate,
Then wiser than a "Surrogate,"
The Universe to know
Bring me the sunset in a cup -
Reckon the morning's flagons up
And say how many Dew -
Tell me how far the morning leaps -
Tell me what time the weaver sleeps
Who spun the breadths of blue!
Write me how many notes there be
In the new Robin's extasy
Among astonished boughs -
How many trips the Tortoise makes -
How many cups the Bee partakes,
The Debauchee of Dews!
Also, who laid the Rainbow's piers,
Also, who leads the docile spheres
By withes of supple blue?
Whose fingers string the stalactite -
Who counts the wampum of the night
To see that none is due?
Who built this little Alban House
And shut the windows down so close
My spirit cannot see?
Who'll let me out some gala day
With implements to fly away,
Passing Pomposity?
"Houses" - so the Wise men tell me -
"Mansions"! Mansions must be warm!
Mansions cannot let the tears in -
Mansions must exclude the storm!
"Many Mansions", by "his Father" -
I don't know him; snugly built!
Could the children find the way there -
Some, would even trudge tonight
To fight aloud, is very brave -
But gallanter, I know
Who charge within the bosom
The Cavalry of Woe -
Who win, and nations do not see -
Who fall - and none observe -
Whose dying eyes, no Country
Regards with patriot love -
We trust, in plumed procession
For such, the Angels go -
Rank after Rank, with even feet -
And Uniforms of snow
She bore it till the simple veins
Traced azure on her hand -
Till pleading, round her quiet eyes
The purple crayons stand.
Till Daffodils had come and gone
I cannot tell the sum,
And then she ceased to bear it -
And with the Saints sat down.
No more her patient figure
At twilight soft to meet -
No more her timid bonnet
Upon the village street -
But crowns instead, and courtiers -
And in the midst so fair,
Whose but her shy - immortal face
Of whom we're whispering here?
For every Bird a nest -
Wherefore in timid quest
Some little Wren goes seeking round -
Wherefore when boughs are free,
Households in every tree,
Pilgrim be found?
Perhaps a home too high -
Ah aristocracy!
The little Wren desires -
Perhaps of twig so fine -
Of twine e'en superfine,
Her pride aspires -
The Lark is not ashamed
To build upon the ground
Her modest house -
Yet who of all the throng
Dancing around the sun
Does so rejoice?
Some, too fragile for winter winds
The thoughtful grave encloses -
Tenderly tucking them in from frost
Before their feet are cold -
Never the treasures in her nest
The cautious grave exposes,
Building where schoolboy dare not look,
And sportsman is not bold.
This covert have all the children
Early aged, and often cold,
Sparrow, unnoticed by the Father -
Lambs for whom time had not a fold.
An altered look about the hills -
A Tyrian light the village fills -
A wider sunrise in the morn
A deeper twilight on the lawn -
A print of a vermillion foot -
A purple finger on the slope
A flippant fly upon the pane -
A spider at his trade again -
An added strut in Chanticleer -
A flower expected everywhere
An axe shrill singing in the woods
Fern odors on untravelled roads
All this and more I cannot tell
A furtive look you know as well
And Nicodemus' Mystery
Receives it's annual reply
Soul, Wilt thou toss again?
By just such a hazard
Hundreds have lost indeed -
But tens have won an all -
Angel's breathless ballot
Lingers to record thee -
Imps in eager caucus
Raffle for my soul
Pigmy seraphs - gone astray -
Velvet people from Vevay -
Belles from some lost summer day -
Bees exclusive Coterie -
Paris could not lay the fold
Belted down with emerald -
Venice could not show a check
Of a tint so lustrous meek -
Never such an ambuscade
As of briar and leaf displayed
For my little damask maid -
I had rather wear her grace
Than an Earl's distinguished face -
I had rather dwell like her
Than be "Duke of Exeter" -
Royalty enough for me
To subdue the Bumblebee