Not any more to be lacked --
Not any more to be known --
Denizen of Significance
For a span so worn --

Even Nature herself
Has forgot it is there --
Sedulous of her Multitudes
Notwithstanding Despair --

Of the Ones that pursued it
Suing it not to go
Some have solaced the longing
To accompany --

Some -- rescinded the Wrench --
Others -- Shall I say
Plated the residue of Adz
With Monotony.

An antiquated Grace
Becomes that cherished Face
As well as prime
Enjoining us to part
We and our pouting Heart
Good friends with time

As Summer into Autumn slips
And yet we sooner say
"The Summer" than "the Autumn," lest
We turn the sun away,

And almost count it an Affront
The presence to concede
Of one however lovely, not
The one that we have loved --

So we evade the charge of Years
On one attempting shy
The Circumvention of the Shaft
Of Life's Declivity.

Escape is such a thankful Word
I often in the Night
Consider it unto myself
No spectacle in sight

Escape -- it is the Basket
In which the Heart is caught
When down some awful Battlement
The rest of Life is dropt --

'Tis not to sight the savior --
It is to be the saved --
And that is why I lay my Head
Upon this trusty word --

Lift it -- with the Feathers
Not alone we fly --
Launch it -- the aquatic
Not the only sea --
Advocate the Azure
To the lower Eyes --
He has obligation
Who has Paradise --

I'd rather recollect a setting
Than own a rising sun
Though one is beautiful forgetting --
And true the other one.

Because in going is a Drama
Staying cannot confer
To die divinely once a Twilight --
Than wane is easier --

Luck is not chance --
It's Toil --
Fortune's expensive smile
Is earned --
The Father of the Mine
Is that old-fashioned Coin
We spurned --

You cannot take itself
From any Human soul --
That indestructible estate
Enable him to dwell --
Impregnable as Light
That every man behold
But take away as difficult
As undiscovered Gold --

To his simplicity
To die -- was little Fate --
If Duty live -- contented
But her Confederate.

The last of Summer is Delight --
Deterred by Retrospect.
'Tis Ecstasy's revealed Review --
Enchantment's Syndicate.

To meet it -- nameless as it is --
Without celestial Mail --
Audacious as without a Knock
To walk within the Veil.

The Heart is the Capital of the Mind --
The Mind is a single State --
The Heart and the Mind together make
A single Continent --

One -- is the Population --
Numerous enough --
This ecstatic Nation
Seek -- it is Yourself.

The Mind lives on the Heart
Like any Parasite --
If that is full of Meat
The Mind is fat.

But if the Heart omit
Emaciate the Wit --
The Aliment of it
So absolute.

The Rat is the concisest Tenant.
He pays no Rent.
Repudiates the Obligation --
On Schemes intent

Balking our Wit
To sound or circumvent --
Hate cannot harm
A Foe so reticent --
Neither Decree prohibit him --
Lawful as Equilibrium.

"Faithful to the end" Amended
From the Heavenly Clause --
Constancy with a Proviso
Constancy abhors --

"Crowns of Life" are servile Prizes
To the stately Heart,
Given for the Giving, solely,
No Emolument.

--

"Faithful to the end" Amended
From the Heavenly clause --
Lucrative indeed the offer
But the Heart withdraws --

"I will give" the base Proviso --
Spare Your "Crown of Life" --
Those it fits, too fair to wear it --
Try it on Yourself --