Ah, Teneriffe!
Retreating Mountain!
Purples of Ages -- pause for you --
Sunset -- reviews her Sapphire Regiment --
Day -- drops you her Red Adieu!

Still -- Clad in your Mail of ices --
Thigh of Granite -- and thew -- of Steel --
Heedless -- alike -- of pomp -- or parting

Ah, Teneriffe!
I'm kneeling -- still --

Bloom upon the Mountain -- stated --
Blameless of a Name --
Efflorescence of a Sunset --
Reproduced -- the same --

Seed, had I, my Purple Sowing
Should endow the Day --
Not a Topic of a Twilight --
Show itself away --

Who for tilling -- to the Mountain
Come, and disappear --
Whose be Her Renown, or fading,
Witness, is not here --

While I state -- the Solemn Petals,
Far as North -- and East,
Far as South and West -- expanding --
Culminate -- in Rest --

And the Mountain to the Evening
Fit His Countenance --
Indicating, by no Muscle --
The Experience --

"Nature" is what we see --
The Hill -- the Afternoon --
Squirrel -- Eclipse -- the Bumble bee --
Nay -- Nature is Heaven --
Nature is what we hear --
The Bobolink -- the Sea --
Thunder -- the Cricket --
Nay -- Nature is Harmony --
Nature is what we know --
Yet have no art to say --
So impotent Our Wisdom is
To her Simplicity.

No Romance sold unto
Could so enthrall a Man
As the perusal of
His Individual One --
'Tis Fiction's -- When 'tis small enough
To Credit -- 'Tisn't true!

One need not be a Chamber -- to be Haunted --
One need not be a House --
The Brain has Corridors -- surpassing
Material Place --

Far safer, of a Midnight Meeting
External Ghost
Than its interior Confronting --
That Cooler Host.

Far safer, through an Abbey gallop,
The Stones a'chase --
Than Unarmed, one's a'self encounter --
In lonesome Place --

Ourself behind ourself, concealed --
Should startle most --
Assassin hid in our Apartment
Be Horror's least.

The Body -- borrows a Revolver --
He bolts the Door --
O'erlooking a superior spectre --
Or More --

She dwelleth in the Ground --
Where Daffodils -- abide --
Her Maker -- Her Metropolis --
The Universe -- Her Maid --

To fetch Her Grace -- and Hue --
And Fairness -- and Renown --
The Firmament's -- To Pluck Her --
And fetch Her Thee -- be mine --

The Future -- never spoke --
Nor will He -- like the Dumb --
Reveal by sign -- a syllable
Of His Profound To Come --

But when the News be ripe --
Presents it -- in the Act --
Forestalling Preparation --
Escape -- or Substitute --

Indifference to Him --
The Dower -- as the Doom --
His Office -- but to execute
Fate's -- Telegram -- to Him --

The Love a Life can show Below
Is but a filament, I know,
Of that diviner thing
That faints upon the face of Noon --
And smites the Tinder in the Sun --
And hinders Gabriel's Wing --

'Tis this -- in Music -- hints and sways --
And far abroad on Summer days --
Distils uncertain pain --
'Tis this enamors in the East --
And tints the Transit in the West
With harrowing Iodine --

'Tis this -- invites -- appalls -- endows --
Flits -- glimmers -- proves -- dissolves --
Returns -- suggests -- convicts -- enchants --
Then -- flings in Paradise --

The Soul that hath a Guest
Doth seldom go abroad --
Diviner Crowd at Home --
Obliterate the need --

And Courtesy forbid
A Host's departure when
Upon Himself be visiting
The Emperor of Men --

Essential Oils -- are wrung --
The Attar from the Rose
Be not expressed by Suns -- alone --
It is the gift of Screws --

The General Rose -- decay --
But this -- in Lady's Drawer
Make Summer -- When the Lady lie
In Ceaseless Rosemary --

Least Bee that brew --
A Honey's Weight
Content Her smallest fraction help
The Amber Quantity --

To be alive -- is Power --
Existence -- in itself --
Without a further function --
Omnipotence -- Enough --

To be alive -- and Will!
'Tis able as a God --
The Maker -- of Ourselves -- be what --
Such being Finitude!