Abraham to kill him --
Was distinctly told --
Isaac was an Urchin --
Abraham was old --

Not a hesitation --
Abraham complied --
Flattered by Obeisance
Tyranny demurred --

Isaac -- to his children
Lived to tell the tale --
Moral -- with a Mastiff
Manners may prevail.

Frigid and sweet Her parting Face --
Frigid and fleet my Feet --
Alien and vain whatever Clime
Acrid whatever Fate.

Given to me without the Suit
Riches and Name and Realm --
Who was She to withhold from me
Penury and Home?

How News must feel when travelling
If News have any Heart
Alighting at the Dwelling
'Twill enter like a Dart!

What News must think when pondering
If News have any Thought
Concerning the stupendousness
Of its perceiveless freight!

What News will do when every Man
Shall comprehend as one
And not in all the Universe
A thing to tell remain?

Dear March -- Come in --
How glad I am --
I hoped for you before --

Put down your Hat --
You must have walked --
How out of Breath you are --
Dear March, Come right up the stairs with me --
I have so much to tell --

I got your Letter, and the Birds --
The Maples never knew that you were coming -- till I called
I declare -- how Red their Faces grew --
But March, forgive me -- and
All those Hills you left for me to Hue --
There was no Purple suitable --
You took it all with you --

Who knocks?  That April.
Lock the Door --
I will not be pursued --
He stayed away a Year to call
When I am occupied --
But trifles look so trivial
As soon as you have come

That Blame is just as dear as Praise
And Praise as mere as Blame --

Elizabeth told Essex
That she could not forgive
The clemency of Deity
However -- might survive --
That secondary succor
We trust that she partook
When suing -- like her Essex
For a reprieving Look --

Floss won't save you from an Abyss
But a Rope will --
Notwithstanding a Rope for a Souvenir
Is not beautiful --

But I tell you every step is a Trough --
And every stop a Well --
Now will you have the Rope or the Floss?
Prices reasonable --

I never hear that one is dead
Without the chance of Life
Afresh annihilating me
That mightiest Belief,

Too mighty for the Daily mind
That tilling its abyss,
Had Madness, had it once or twice
The yawning Consciousness,

Beliefs are Bandaged, like the Tongue
When Terror were it told
In any Tone commensurate
Would strike us instant Dead

I do not know the man so bold
He dare in lonely Place
That awful stranger Consciousness
Deliberately face --

I send you a decrepit flower
That nature sent to me
At parting -- she was going south
And I designed to stay --

Her motive for the souvenir
If sentiment for me
Or circumstances prudential
Withheld invincibly --

Knock with tremor --
These are Caesars --
Should they be at Home
Flee as if you trod unthinking
On the Foot of Doom --

These receded to accostal
Centuries ago --
Should they rend you with "How are you"
What have you to show?

Our little secrets slink away --
Beside God's shall not tell --
He kept his word a Trillion years
And might we not as well --
But for the niggardly delight
To make each other stare
Is there no sweet beneath the sun
With this that may compare --

The Symptom of the Gale --
The Second of Dismay --
Between its Rumor and its Face --
Is almost Revelry --

The Houses firmer root --
The Heavens cannot be found --
The Upper Surfaces of things
Take covert in the Ground --

The Mem'ry of the Sun
Not Any can recall --
Although by Nature's sterling Watch
So scant an interval --

And when the Noise is caught
And Nature looks around --
"We dreamed it"?  She interrogates --
"Good Morning" -- We propound?