What did They do since I saw Them?
Were They industrious?
So many questions to put Them
Have I the eagerness

That could I snatch Their Faces
That could Their lips reply
Not till the last was answered
Should They start for the Sky.

Not if Their Party were waiting,
Not if to talk with Me
Were to Them now, Homesickness
After Eternity.

Not if the Just suspect me
And offer a Reward
Would I restore my Booty
To that Bold Person, God --

Sweet, to have had them lost
For news that they be saved --
The nearer they departed Us
The nearer they, restored,

Shall stand to Our Right Hand --
Most precious and the Dead --
Next precious
Those that rose to go --
Then thought of Us, and stayed.

The first Day that I was a Life
I recollect it -- How still --
That last Day that I was a Life
I recollect it -- as well --

'Twas stiller -- though the first
Was still --
"Twas empty -- but the first
Was full --

This -- was my finallest Occasion --
But then
My tenderer Experiment
Toward Men --

"Which choose I"?
That -- I cannot say --
"Which choose They"?
Question Memory!

I hide myself within my flower,
That fading from your Vase,
You, unsuspecting, feel for me --
Almost a loneliness.

Had I not This, or This, I said,
Appealing to Myself,
In moment of prosperity --
Inadequate -- were Life --

"Thou hast not Me, nor Me" -- it said,
In Moment of Reverse --
"And yet Thou art industrious --
No need -- hadst Thou -- of us"?

My need -- was all I had -- I said --
The need did not reduce --
Because the food -- exterminate --
The hunger -- does not cease --

But diligence -- is sharper --
Proportioned to the Chance --
To feed upon the Retrograde --
Enfeebles -- the Advance --

Between My Country -- and the Others --
There is a Sea --
But Flowers -- negotiate between us --
As Ministry.

The Admirations -- and Contempts -- of time --
Show justest -- through an Open Tomb --
The Dying -- as it were a Height
Reorganizes Estimate
And what We saw not
We distinguish clear --
And mostly -- see not
What We saw before --

'Tis Compound Vision --
Light -- enabling Light --
The Finite -- furnished
With the Infinite --
Convex -- and Concave Witness --
Back -- toward Time --
And forward --
Toward the God of Him --

Till Death -- is narrow Loving --
The scantest Heart extant
Will hold you till your privilege
Of Finiteness -- be spent --

But He whose loss procures you
Such Destitution that
Your Life too abject for itself
Thenceforward imitate --

Until -- Resemblance perfect --
Yourself, for His pursuit
Delight of Nature -- abdicate --
Exhibit Love -- somewhat --

'Tis Sunrise -- Little Maid -- Hast Thou
No Station in the Day?
'Twas not thy wont, to hinder so --
Retrieve thine industry --

'Tis Noon -- My little Maid --
Alas -- and art thou sleeping yet?
The Lily -- waiting to be Wed --
The Bee -- Hast thou forgot?

My little Maid -- 'Tis Night -- Alas
That Night should be to thee
Instead of Morning -- Had'st thou broached
Thy little Plan to Die --
Dissuade thee, if I could not, Sweet,
I might have aided -- thee --

I make His Crescent fill or lack --
His Nature is at Full
Or Quarter -- as I signify --
His Tides -- do I control --

He holds superior in the Sky
Or gropes, at my Command
Behind inferior Clouds -- or round
A Mist's slow Colonnade --

But since We hold a Mutual Disc --
And front a Mutual Day --
Which is the Despot, neither knows --
Nor Whose -- the Tyranny --

Experience is the Angled Road
Preferred against the Mind
By -- Paradox -- the Mind itself --
Presuming it to lead

Quite Opposite -- How Complicate
The Discipline of Man --
Compelling Him to Choose Himself
His Preappointed Pain --

Too little way the House must lie
From every Human Heart
That holds in undisputed Lease
A white inhabitant --

Too narrow is the Right between --
Too imminent the chance --
Each Consciousness must emigrate
And lose its neighbor once --