Sweet Mountains -- Ye tell Me no lie --
Never deny Me -- Never fly --
Those same unvarying Eyes
Turn on Me -- when I fail -- or feign,
Or take the Royal names in vain --
Their far -- slow -- Violet Gaze --

My Strong Madonnas -- Cherish still --
The Wayward Nun -- beneath the Hill --
Whose service -- is to You --
Her latest Worship -- When the Day
Fades from the Firmament away --
To lift Her Brows on You --

It tossed -- and tossed --
A little Brig I knew -- o'ertook by Blast --
It spun -- and spun --
And groped delirious, for Morn --

It slipped -- and slipped --
As One that drunken -- stept --
Its white foot tripped --
Then dropped from sight --

Ah, Brig -- Good Night
To Crew and You --
The Ocean's Heart too smooth -- too Blue --
To break for You --

It's easy to invent a Life --
God does it -- every Day --
Creation -- but the Gambol
Of His Authority --

It's easy to efface it --
The thrifty Deity
Could scarce afford Eternity
To Spontaneity --

The Perished Patterns murmur --
But His Perturbless Plan
Proceed -- inserting Here -- a Sun --
There -- leaving out a Man --

Where Thou art -- that -- is Home --
Cashmere -- or Calvary -- the same --
Degree -- or Shame --
I scarce esteem Location's Name --
So I may Come --

What Thou dost -- is Delight --
Bondage as Play -- be sweet --
Imprisonment -- Content --
And Sentence -- Sacrament --
Just We two -- meet --

Where Thou art not -- is Woe --
Tho' Bands of Spices -- row --
What Thou dost not -- Despair --
Tho' Gabriel -- praise me -- Sire --

We thirst at first -- 'tis Nature's Act --
And later -- when we die --
A little Water supplicate --
Of fingers going by --

It intimates the finer want --
Whose adequate supply
Is that Great Water in the West --
Termed Immortality --

Precious to Me -- She still shall be --
Though She forget the name I bear --
The fashion of the Gown I wear --
The very Color of My Hair --

So like the Meadows -- now --
I dared to show a Tress of Theirs
If haply -- She might not despise
A Buttercup's Array --

I know the Whole -- obscures the Part --
The fraction -- that appeased the Heart
Till Number's Empery --
Remembered -- as the Millner's flower

When Summer's Everlasting Dower --
Confronts the dazzled Bee.

Let Us play Yesterday --
I -- the Girl at school --
You -- and Eternity -- the
Untold Tale --

Easing my famine
At my Lexicon --
Logarithm -- had I -- for Drink --
'Twas a dry Wine --

Somewhat different -- must be --
Dreams tint the Sleep --
Cunning Reds of Morning
Make the Blind -- leap --

Still at the Egg-life --
Chafing the Shell --
When you troubled the Ellipse --
And the Bird fell --

Manacles be dim -- they say --
To the new Free --
Liberty -- Commoner --
Never could -- to me --

'Twas my last gratitude
When I slept -- at night --
'Twas the first Miracle
Let in -- with Light --

Can the Lark resume the Shell --
Easier -- for the Sky --
Wouldn't Bonds hurt more
Than Yesterday?

Wouldn't Dungeons sorer frate
On the Man -- free --
Just long enough to taste --
Then -- doomed new --

God of the Manacle
As of the Free --
Take not my Liberty
Away from Me --

Defrauded I a Butterfly --
The lawful Heir -- for Thee --

"I want" -- it pleaded -- All its life --
I want -- was chief it said
When Skill entreated it -- the last --
And when so newly dead --

I could not deem it late -- to hear
That single -- steadfast sigh --
The lips had placed as with a "Please"
Toward Eternity --

She rose to His Requirement -- dropt
The Playthings of Her Life
To take the honorable Work
Of Woman, and of Wife --

If ought She missed in Her new Day,
Of Amplitude, or Awe --
Or first Prospective -- Or the Gold
In using, wear away,

It lay unmentioned -- as the Sea
Develop Pearl, and Weed,
But only to Himself -- be known
The Fathoms they abide --