As the Starved Maelstrom laps the Navies
As the Vulture teazed
Forces the Broods in lonely Valleys
As the Tiger eased
By but a Crumb of Blood, fasts Scarlet
Till he meet a Man
Dainty adorned with Veins and Tissues
And partakes - his Tongue
Cooled by the Morsel for a moment
Grows a fiercer thing
Till he esteem his Dates and Cocoa
A Nutrition mean
I, of a finer Famine
Deem my Supper dry
For but a Berry of Domingo
And a Torrid Eye.
The Sun and Moon must make their haste -
The Stars express around
For in the Zones of Paradise
The Lord alone is burned -
His Eye, it is the East and West -
The North and South when He
Do concentrate His Countenance
Like Glow Worms, flee away -
Oh Poor and Far -
Oh Hindered Eye
That hunted for the Day -
The Lord a Candle entertains
Entirely for Thee.
Finding is the first Act
The second, loss,
Third, Expedition for the "Golden Fleece"
Fourth, no Discovery -
Fifth, no Crew -
Finally, no Golden Fleece -
Jason, sham, too.
Because the Bee may blameless hum
For Thee a Bee do I become
List even unto Me -
Because the Flowers unafraid
May lift a look on thine, a Maid
Alway a Flower would be -
Nor Robins, Robins need not hide
When Thou upon their Crypts intrude
So Wings bestow on Me
Or Petals, or a Dower of Buzz
That Bee to ride - or Flower of Furze
I that way worship Thee.
They ask but our Delight -
The Darlings of the Soil
And grant us all their Countenance
For a penurious smile.
Escaping backward to perceive
The Sea upon our place -
Escaping forward, to confront
His glittering Embrace -
Retreating up, a Billow's hight
Retreating blinded down
Our undermining feet to meet
Instructs to the Divine.
Fame is the tint that Scholars leave
Upon their Setting Names -
The Iris not of Occident
That disappears as comes.
He outstripped Time with but a Bout,
He outstripped Stars and Sun
And then, unjaded, challenged God
In presence of the Throne -
And He and He in mighty List
Unto this present, run,
The larger Glory for the less
A just sufficient Ring.
The Robin for the Crumb
Returns no syllable
But long records the Lady's name
In Silver Chronicle.
That Distance was between Us
That is not of Mile or Main -
The Will it is that situates -
Equator - never can.