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 --

Unfulfilled to Observation --
Incomplete -- to Eye --
But to Faith -- a Revolution
In Locality --

Unto Us -- the Suns extinguish --
To our Opposite --
New Horizons -- they embellish --
Fronting Us -- with Night.

'Twas awkward, but it fitted me --
An Ancient fashioned Heart --
Its only lore -- its Steadfastness --
In Change -- unerudite --

It only moved as do the Suns --
For merit of Return --
Or Birds -- confirmed perpetual
By Alternating Zone --

I only have it not Tonight
In its established place --
For technicality of Death --
Omitted in the Lease --

The Soul's distinct connection
With immortality
Is best disclosed by Danger
Or quick Calamity --

As Lightning on a Landscape
Exhibits Sheets of Place --
Not yet suspected -- but for Flash --
And Click -- and Suddenness.

The Mountain sat upon the Plain
In his tremendous Chair --
His observation omnifold,
His inquest, everywhere --

The Seasons played around his knees
Like Children round a sire --
Grandfather of the Days is He
Of Dawn, the Ancestor --

Death is a Dialogue between
The Spirit and the Dust.
"Dissolve" says Death -- The Spirit "Sir
I have another Trust" --

Death doubts it -- Argues from the Ground --
The Spirit turns away
Just laying off for evidence
An Overcoat of Clay.

Besides this May
We know
There is Another --
How fair
Our Speculations of the Foreigner!

Some know Him whom We knew --
Sweet Wonder --
A Nature be
Where Saints, and our plain going Neighbor
Keep May!

It bloomed and dropt, a Single Noon --
The Flower -- distinct and Red --
I, passing, thought another Noon
Another in its stead

Will equal glow, and thought no More
But came another Day
To find the Species disappeared --
The Same Locality --

The Sun in place -- no other fraud
On Nature's perfect Sum --
Had I but lingered Yesterday --
Was my retrieveless blame --

Much Flowers of this and further Zones
Have perished in my Hands
For seeking its Resemblance --
But unapproached it stands --

The single Flower of the Earth
That I, in passing by
Unconscious was -- Great Nature's Face
Passed infinite by Me --

This Merit hath the worst --
It cannot be again --
When Fate hath taunted last
And thrown Her furthest Stone --

The Maimed may pause, and breathe,
And glance securely round --
The Deer attracts no further
Than it resists -- the Hound --

Purple -- is fashionable twice --
This season of the year,
And when a soul perceives itself
To be an Emperor.

As Sleigh Bells seem in summer
Or Bees, at Christmas show --
So fairy -- so fictitious
The individuals do
Repealed from observation --
A Party that we knew --
More distant in an instant
Than Dawn in Timbuctoo.

No Other can reduce
Our mortal Consequence
Like the remembering it be nought
A Period from hence
But Contemplation for
Contemporaneous Nought
Our Single Competition
Jehovah's Estimate.

Ideals are the Fairly Oil
With which we help the Wheel
But when the Vital Axle turns
The Eye rejects the Oil.

'Tis Anguish grander than Delight
'Tis Resurrection Pain --
The meeting Bands of smitten Face
We questioned to, again.

'Tis Transport wild as thrills the Graves
When Cerements let go
And Creatures clad in Miracle
Go up by Two and Two.

The Missing All -- prevented Me
From missing minor Things.
If nothing larger than a World's
Departure from a Hinge --
Or Sun's extinction, be observed --
'Twas not so large that I
Could lift my Forehead from my work
For Curiosity.