Touch lightly Nature's sweet Guitar
Unless thou know'st the Tune
Or every Bird will point at thee
Because a Bard too soon --

These held their Wick above the West --
Till when the Red declined --
Or how the Amber aided it --
Defied to be defined --

Then waned without disparagement
In a dissembling Hue
That would not let the Eye decide
Did it abide or no --

They might not need me -- yet they might --
I'll let my Heart be just in sight --
A smile so small as mine might be
Precisely their necessity --

Hope is a strange invention --
A Patent of the Heart --
In unremitting action
Yet never wearing out --

Of this electric Adjunct
Not anything is known
But its unique momentum
Embellish all we own --

Lay this Laurel on the One
Too intrinsic for Renown --
Laurel -- veil your deathless tree --
Him you chasten, that is He!

Whose Pink career may have a close
Portentous as our own, who knows?
To imitate these Neighbors fleet
In awe and innocence, were meet.

After all Birds have been investigated and laid aside --
Nature imparts the little Blue-Bird -- assured
Her conscientious Voice will soar unmoved
Above ostensible Vicissitude.

First at the March -- competing with the Wind --
Her panting note exalts us -- like a friend --
Last to adhere when Summer cleaves away --
Elegy of Integrity.

She laid her docile Crescent down
And this confiding Stone
Still states to Dates that have forgot
The News that she is gone --

So constant to its stolid trust,
The Shaft that never knew --
It shames the Constancy that fled
Before its emblem flew --

It sounded as if the Streets were running
And then -- the Streets stood still --
Eclipse -- was all we could see at the Window
And Awe -- was all we could feel.

By and by -- the boldest stole out of his Covert
To see if Time was there --
Nature was in an Opal Apron,
Mixing fresher Air.

I have no Life but this --
To lead it here --
Nor any Death -- but lest
Dispelled from there --

Nor tie to Earths to come --
Nor Action new --
Except through this extent --
The Realm of you --

Perhaps they do not go so far
As we who stay, suppose --
Perhaps come closer, for the lapse
Of their corporeal clothes --

It may be know so certainly
How short we have to fear
That comprehension antedates
And estimates us there --