Ourselves were wed one summer -- dear --
Your Vision -- was in June --
And when Your little Lifetime failed,
I wearied -- too -- of mine --
And overtaken in the Dark --
Where You had put me down --
By Some one carrying a Light --
I -- too -- received the Sign.
'Tis true -- Our Futures different lay --
Your Cottage -- faced the sun --
While Oceans -- and the North must be --
On every side of mine
'Tis true, Your Garden led the Bloom,
For mine -- in Frosts -- was sown --
And yet, one Summer, we were Queens --
But You -- were crowned in June --
My Garden -- like the Beach --
Denotes there be -- a Sea --
That's Summer --
Such as These -- the Pearls
She fetches -- such as Me
Further in Summer than the Birds
Pathetic from the Grass
A minor Nation celebrates
Its unobtrusive Mass.
No Ordinance be seen
So gradual the Grace
A pensive Custom it becomes
Enlarging Loneliness.
Antiquest felt at Noon
When August burning low
Arise this spectral Canticle
Repose to typify
Remit as yet no Grace
No Furrow on the Glow
Yet a Druidic Difference
Enhances Nature now
Summer -- we all have seen --
A few of us -- believed --
A few -- the more aspiring
Unquestionably loved --
But Summer does not care --
She goes her spacious way
As eligible as the moon
To our Temerity --
The Doom to be adored --
The Affluence conferred --
Unknown as to an Ecstasy
The Embryo endowed --
So much Summer
Me for showing
Illegitimate --
Would a Smile's minute bestowing
Too exorbitant
To the Lady
With the Guinea
Look -- if She should know
Crumb of Mine
A Robin's Larder
Would suffice to stow --
'Tis moonlight, summer moonlight,
All soft and still and fair;
The solemn hour of midnight
Breathes sweet thoughts everywhere,
But most where trees are sending
Their breezy boughs on high,
Or stooping low are lending
A shelter from the sky.
And there in those wild bowers
A lovely form is laid;
Green grass and dew-steeped flowers
Wave gently round her head.