961

Wert Thou but ill -- that I might show thee
How long a Day I could endure
Though thine attention stop not on me
Nor the least signal, Me assure --

Wert Thou but Stranger in ungracious country --
And Mine -- the Door
Thou paused at, for a passing bounty --
No More --

Accused -- wert Thou -- and Myself -- Tribunal --
Convicted -- Sentenced -- Ermine -- not to Me
Half the Condition, thy Reverse -- to follow --
Just to partake -- the infamy --

The Tenant of the Narrow Cottage, wert Thou --
Permit to be
The Housewife in thy low attendance
Contenteth Me --

No Service hast Thou, I would not achieve it --
To die -- or live --
The first -- Sweet, proved I, ere I saw thee --
For Life -- be Love --

Midsummer, was it, when They died --
A full, and perfect time --
The Summer closed upon itself
In Consummated Bloom --

The Corn, her furthest kernel filled
Before the coming Flail --
When These -- leaned unto Perfectness --
Through Haze of Burial --

A nearness to Tremendousness --
An Agony procures --
Affliction ranges Boundlessness --
Vicinity to Laws

Contentment's quiet Suburb --
Affliction cannot stay
In Acres -- Its Location
Is Illocality --

"Unto Me?"  I do not know you --
Where may be your House?

"I am Jesus -- Late of Judea --
Now -- of Paradise" --

Wagons -- have you -- to convey me?
This is far from Thence --

"Arms of Mine -- sufficient Phaeton --
Trust Omnipotence" --

I am spotted -- "I am Pardon" --
I am small -- "The Least
Is esteemed in Heaven the Chiefest --
Occupy my House" --

Denial -- is the only fact
Perceived by the Denied --
Whose Will -- a numb significance --
The Day the Heaven died --

And all the Earth strove common round --
Without Delight, or Beam --
What Comfort was it Wisdom -- was --
The spoiler of Our Home?

All forgot for recollecting
Just a paltry One --
All forsook, for just a Stranger's
New Accompanying --

Grace of Wealth, and Grace of Station
Less accounted than
An unknown Esteem possessing --
Estimate -- Who can --

Home effaced -- Her faces dwindled --
Nature -- altered small --
Sun -- if shone -- or Storm -- if shattered --
Overlooked I all --

Dropped -- my fate -- a timid Pebble --
In thy bolder Sea --
Prove -- me -- Sweet -- if I regret it --
Prove Myself -- of Thee --

Pain -- expands the Time --
Ages coil within
The minute Circumference
Of a single Brain --

Pain contracts -- the Time --
Occupied with Shot
Gamuts of Eternities
Are as they were not --

Fitter to see Him, I may be
For the long Hindrance -- Grace -- to Me --
With Summers, and with Winters, grow,
Some passing Year -- A trait bestow

To make Me fairest of the Earth --
The Waiting -- then -- will seem so worth
I shall impute with half a pain
The blame that I was chosen -- then --

Time to anticipate His Gaze --
It's first -- Delight -- and then -- Surprise --
The turning o'er and o'er my face
For Evidence it be the Grace --

He left behind One Day -- So less
He seek Conviction, That -- be This --

I only must not grow so new
That He'll mistake -- and ask for me
Of me -- when first unto the Door
I go -- to Elsewhere go no more --

I only must not change so fair
He'll sigh -- "The Other -- She -- is Where?"
The Love, tho', will array me right
I shall be perfect -- in His sight --

If He perceive the other Truth --
Upon an Excellenter Youth --

How sweet I shall not lack in Vain --
But gain -- thro' loss -- Through Grief -- obtain --
The Beauty that reward Him best --
The Beauty of Demand -- at Rest --

He who in Himself believes --
Fraud cannot presume --
Faith is Constancy's Result --
And assumes -- from Home --

Cannot perish, though it fail
Every second time --
But defaced Vicariously --
For Some Other Shame --

Color -- Caste -- Denomination --
These -- are Time's Affair --
Death's diviner Classifying
Does not know they are --

As in sleep -- All Hue forgotten --
Tenets -- put behind --
Death's large -- Democratic fingers
Rub away the Brand --

If Circassian -- He is careless --
If He put away
Chrysalis of Blonde -- or Umber --
Equal Butterfly --

They emerge from His Obscuring --
What Death -- knows so well --
Our minuter intuitions --
Deem unplausible --