I reckon -- when I count it all --
First -- Poets -- Then the Sun --
Then Summer -- Then the Heaven of God --
And then -- the List is done --

But, looking back -- the First so seems
To Comprehend the Whole --
The Others look a needless Show --
So I write -- Poets -- All --

Their Summer -- lasts a Solid Year --
They can afford a Sun
The East -- would deem extravagant --
And if the Further Heaven --

Be Beautiful as they prepare
For Those who worship Them --
It is too difficult a Grace --
To justify the Dream --

I could die -- to know --
'Tis a trifling knowledge --
News-Boys salute the Door --
Carts -- joggle by --
Morning's bold face -- stares in the window --
Were but mine -- the Charter of the least Fly --

Houses hunch the House
With their Brick Shoulders --
Coals -- from a Rolling Load -- rattle -- how -- near --
To the very Square -- His foot is passing --
Possibly, this moment --
While I -- dream -- Here --

Must be a Woe --
A loss or so --
To bend the eye
Best Beauty's way --

But -- once aslant
It notes Delight
As difficult
As Stalactite

A Common Bliss
Were had for less --
The price -- is
Even as the Grace --

Our lord -- thought no
Extravagance
To pay -- a Cross --

Delight -- becomes pictorial --
When viewed through Pain --
More fair -- because impossible
Than any gain --

The Mountain -- at a given distance --
In Amber -- lies --
Approached -- the Amber flits -- a little --
And That's -- the Skies --

The Test of Love -- is Death --
Our Lord -- "so loved" -- it saith --
What Largest Lover -- hath
Another -- doth --

If smaller Patience -- be --
Through less Infinity --
If Bravo, sometimes swerve --
Through fainter Nerve --

Accept its Most --
And overlook -- the Dust --
Last -- Least --
The Cross' -- Request --

My first well Day -- since many ill --
I asked to go abroad,
And take the Sunshine in my hands,
And see the things in Pod --

A 'blossom just when I went in
To take my Chance with pain --
Uncertain if myself, or He,
Should prove the strongest One.

The Summer deepened, while we strove --
She put some flowers away --
And Redder cheeked Ones -- in their stead --
A fond -- illusive way --

To cheat Herself, it seemed she tried --
As if before a child
To fade -- Tomorrow -- Rainbows held
The Sepulchre, could hide.

She dealt a fashion to the Nut --
She tied the Hoods to Seeds --
She dropped bright scraps of Tint, about --
And left Brazilian Threads

On every shoulder that she met --
Then both her Hands of Haze
Put up -- to hide her parting Grace
From our unfitted eyes.

My loss, by sickness -- Was it Loss?
Or that Ethereal Gain
One earns by measuring the Grave --
Then -- measuring the Sun --

"Heaven" has different Signs -- to me --
Sometimes, I think that Noon
Is but a symbol of the Place --
And when again, at Dawn,

A mighty look runs round the World
And settles in the Hills --
An Awe if it should be like that
Upon the Ignorance steals --

The Orchard, when the Sun is on --
The Triumph of the Birds
When they together Victory make --
Some Carnivals of Clouds --

The Rapture of a finished Day --
Returning to the West --
All these -- remind us of the place
That Men call "paradise" --

Itself be fairer -- we suppose --
But how Ourself, shall be
Adorned, for a Superior Grace --
Not yet, our eyes can see --

I prayed, at first, a little Girl,
Because they told me to --
But stopped, when qualified to guess
How prayer would feel -- to me --

If I believed God looked around,
Each time my Childish eye
Fixed full, and steady, on his own
In Childish honesty --

And told him what I'd like, today,
And parts of his far plan
That baffled me --
The mingled side
Of his Divinity --

And often since, in Danger,
I count the force 'twould be
To have a God so strong as that
To hold my life for me

Till I could take the Balance
That tips so frequent, now,
It takes me all the while to poise --
And then -- it doesn't stay --