To flee from memory
Had we the Wings
Many would fly
Inured to slower things
Birds with surprise
Would scan the cowering Van
Of men escaping
From the mind of man

Safe Despair it is that raves --
Agony is frugal.
Puts itself severe away
For its own perusal.

Garrisoned no Soul can be
In the Front of Trouble --
Love is one, not aggregate --
Nor is Dying double --

The Butterfly's Assumption Gown
In Chrysoprase Apartments hung
This afternoon put on --

How condescending to descend
And be of Buttercups the friend
In a New England Town --

The Suburbs of a Secret
A Strategist should keep,
Better than on a Dream intrude
To scrutinize the Sleep.

The Butterfly in honored Dust
Assuredly will lie
But none will pass the Catacomb
So chastened as the Fly --

To pile like Thunder to its close
Then crumble grand away
While Everything created hid
This -- would be Poetry --

Or Love -- the two coeval come --
We both and neither prove --
Experience either and consume --
For None see God and live --

The incidents of love
Are more than its Events --
Investment's best Expositor
Is the minute Per Cents --

The Stars are old, that stood for me --
The West a little worn --
Yet newer glows the only Gold
I ever cared to earn --

Presuming on that lone result
Her infinite disdain
But vanquished her with my defeat
'Twas Victory was slain.

White as an Indian Pipe
Red as a Cardinal Flower
Fabulous as a Moon at Noon
February Hour --

Silence is all we dread.
There's Ransom in a Voice --
But Silence is Infinity.
Himself have not a face.

Like Brooms of Steel
The Snow and Wind
Had swept the Winter Street --
The House was hooked
The Sun sent out
Faint Deputies of Heat --
Where rode the Bird
The Silence tied
His ample -- plodding Steed
The Apple in the Cellar snug
Was all the one that played.

Had this one Day not been.
Or could it cease to be
How smitten, how superfluous,
Were every other Day!

Lest Love should value less
What Loss would value more
Had it the stricken privilege,
It cherishes before.

Elijah's Wagon knew no thill
Was innocent of Wheel
Elijah's horses as unique
As was his vehicle --

Elijah's journey to portray
Expire with him the skill
Who justified Elijah
In feats inscrutable --

Longing is like the Seed
That wrestles in the Ground,
Believing if it intercede
It shall at length be found.

The Hour, and the Clime --
Each Circumstance unknown,
What Constancy must be achieved
Before it see the Sun!

Not any higher stands the Grave
For Heroes than for Men --
Not any nearer for the Child
Than numb Three Score and Ten --

This latest Leisure equal lulls
The Beggar and his Queen
Propitiate this Democrat
A Summer's Afternoon --

Dominion lasts until obtained --
Possession just as long --
But these -- endowing as they flit
Eternally belong.

How everlasting are the Lips
Known only to the Dew --
These are the Brides of permanence
Supplanting me and you.

Who were "the Father and the Son"
We pondered when a child,
And what had they to do with us
And when portentous told

With inference appalling
By Childhood fortified
We thought, at least they are no worse
Than they have been described.

Who are "the Father and the Son"
Did we demand Today
"The Father and the Son" himself
Would doubtless specify --

But had they the felicity
When we desired to know.
We better Friends had been, perhaps,
Than time ensue to be --

We start -- to learn that we believe
But once -- entirely --
Belief, it does not fit so well
When altered frequently --

We blush, that Heaven if we achieve --
Event ineffable --
We shall have shunned until ashamed
To own the Miracle --