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 --
This Chasm, Sweet, upon my life
I mention it to you,
When Sunrise through a fissure drop
The Day must follow too.
If we demur, its gaping sides
Disclose as 'twere a Tomb
Ourself am lying straight wherein
The Favorite of Doom.
When it has just contained a Life
Then, Darling, it will close
And yet so bolder every Day
So turbulent it grows
I'm tempted half to stitch it up
With a remaining Breath
I should not miss in yielding, though
To Him, it would be Death --
Undue Significance a starving man attaches
To Food --
Far off -- He sighs -- and therefore -- Hopeless --
And therefore -- Good --
Partaken -- it relieves -- indeed --
But proves us
That Spices fly
In the Receipt -- It was the Distance --
Was Savory --
Time does go on --
I tell it gay to those who suffer now --
They shall survive --
There is a sun --
They don't believe it now --
They say that "Time assuages" --
Time never did assuage --
An actual suffering strengthens
As Sinews do, with age --
Time is a Test of Trouble --
But not a Remedy --
If such it prove, it prove too
There was no Malady --
He told a homely tale
And spotted it with tears --
Upon his infant face was set
The Cicatrice of years --
All crumpled was the cheek
No other kiss had known
Than flake of snow, divided with
The Redbreast of the Barn --
If Mother -- in the Grave --
Or Father -- on the Sea --
Or Father in the Firmament --
Or Brethren, had he --
If Commonwealth below,
Or Commonwealth above
Have missed a Barefoot Citizen --
I've ransomed it -- alive --
Robbed by Death -- but that was easy --
To the failing Eye
I could hold the latest Glowing --
Robbed by Liberty
For Her Jugular Defences --
This, too, I endured --
Hint of Glory -- it afforded --
For the Brave Beloved --
Fraud of Distance -- Fraud of Danger,
Fraud of Death -- to bear --
It is Bounty -- to Suspense's
Vague Calamity --
Stalking our entire Possession
On a Hair's result --
Then -- seesawing -- coolly -- on it --
Trying if it split --
When I hoped I feared --
Since I hoped I dared
Everywhere alone
As a Church remain --
Spectre cannot harm --
Serpent cannot charm --
He deposes Doom
Who hath suffered him --
Joy to have merited the Pain --
To merit the Release --
Joy to have perished every step --
To Compass Paradise --
Pardon -- to look upon thy face --
With these old fashioned Eyes --
Better than new -- could be -- for that --
Though bought in Paradise --
Because they looked on thee before --
And thou hast looked on them --
Prove Me -- My Hazel Witnesses
The features are the same --
So fleet thou wert, when present --
So infinite -- when gone --
An Orient's Apparition --
Remanded of the Morn --
If pain for peace prepares
Lo, what "Augustan" years
Our feet await!
If springs from winter rise,
Can the Anemones
Be reckoned up?
If night stands fast -- then noon
To gird us for the sun,
What gaze!
When from a thousand skies
On our developed eyes
Noons blaze!
Tho' I get home how late -- how late --
So I get home - 'twill compensate --
Better will be the Ecstasy
That they have done expecting me --
When Night -- descending -- dumb -- and dark --
They hear my unexpected knock --
Transporting must the moment be --
Brewed from decades of Agony!
To think just how the fire will burn --
Just how long-cheated eyes will turn --
To wonder what myself will say,
And what itself, will say to me --
Beguiles the Centuries of way!
Birthday of but a single pang
That there are less to come --
Afflictive is the Adjective
But affluent the doom --