To love thee Year by Year --
May less appear
Than sacrifice, and cease --
However, dear,
Forever might be short, I thought to show --
And so I pieced it, with a flower, now.

Much Madness is divinest Sense --
To a discerning Eye --
Much Sense -- the starkest Madness --
'Tis the Majority
In this, as All, prevail --
Assent -- and you are sane --
Demur -- you're straightway dangerous --
And handled with a Chain --

The Wind -- tapped like a tired Man --
And like a Host -- "Come in"
I boldly answered -- entered then
My Residence within

A Rapid -- footless Guest --
To offer whom a Chair
Were as impossible as hand
A Sofa to the Air --

No Bone had He to bind Him --
His Speech was like the Push
Of numerous Humming Birds at once
From a superior Bush --

His Countenance -- a Billow --
His Fingers, as He passed
Let go a music -- as of tunes
Blown tremulous in Glass --

He visited -- still flitting --
Then like a timid Man
Again, He tapped -- 'twas flurriedly --
And I became alone --

Prayer is the little implement
Through which Men reach
Where Presence -- is denied them.
They fling their Speech

By means of it -- in God's Ear --
If then He hear --
This sums the Apparatus
Comprised in Prayer --

Forget!  The lady with the Amulet
Forget she wore it at her Heart
Because she breathed against
Was Treason twixt?

Deny! Did Rose her Bee --
For Privilege of Play
Or Wile of Butterfly
Or Opportunity -- Her Lord away?

The lady with the Amulet -- will face --
The Bee -- in Mausoleum laid --
Discard his Bride --
But longer than the little Rill --
That cooled the Forehead of the Hill --
While Other -- went the Sea to fill --
And Other -- went to turn the Mill --
I'll do thy Will --

Undue Significance a starving man attaches
To Food --
Far off -- He sighs -- and therefore -- Hopeless --
And therefore -- Good --

Partaken -- it relieves -- indeed --
But proves us
That Spices fly
In the Receipt -- It was the Distance --
Was Savory --

'Tis customary as we part
A trinket -- to confer --
It helps to stimulate the faith
When Lovers be afar --

'Tis various -- as the various taste --
Clematis -- journeying far --
Presents me with a single Curl
Of her Electric Hair --

This is my letter to the World
That never wrote to Me --
The simple News that Nature told --
With tender Majesty

Her Message is committed
To Hands I cannot see --
For love of Her -- Sweet -- countrymen --
Judge tenderly -- of Me

God made a little Gentian --
It tried -- to be a Rose --
And failed -- and all the Summer laughed --
But just before the Snows

There rose a Purple Creature --
That ravished all the Hill --
And Summer hid her Forehead --
And Mockery -- was still --

The Frosts were her condition --
The Tyrian would not come
Until the North -- invoke it --
Creator -- Shall I -- bloom?