ED+Handout+Poems

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67
Success is counted sweetest By those who ne'er succeed. To comprehend a nectar Requires sorest need.

Not one of all the purple Host Who took the Flag today Can tell the definition So clear of Victory

As he defeated — dying — On whose forbidden ear The distant strains of triumph Burst agonized and clear!



280
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, And Mourners to and fro Kept treading — treading — till it seemed That Sense was breaking through —

And when they all were seated, A Service, like a Drum — Kept beating — beating — till I thought My Mind was going numb —

And then I heard them lift a Box And creak across my Soul With those same Boots of Lead, again, Then Space — began to toll,

As all the Heavens were a Bell, And Being, but an Ear, And I, and Silence, some strange Race Wrecked, solitary, here —

And then a Plank in Reason, broke, And I dropped down, and down — And hit a World, at every plunge, And Finished knowing — then —



328
A Bird came down the Walk — He did not know I saw — He bit an Angleworm in halves And ate the fellow, raw,

And then he drank a Dew From a convenient Grass — And then hopped sidewise to the Wall To let a Beetle pass —

He glanced with rapid eyes That hurried all around — They looked like frightened Beads, I thought — He stirred his Velvet Head

Like one in danger, Cautious, I offered him a Crumb And he unrolled his feathers And rowed him softer home —

Than Oars divide the Ocean, Too silver for a seam — Or Butterflies, off Banks of Noon Leap, plashless as they swim.



435
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 —



436
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 —



501
This World is not Conclusion. A Species stands beyond — Invisible, as Music — But positive, as Sound — It beckons, and it baffles — Philosophy — don't know — And through a Riddle, at the last — Sagacity, must go — To guess it, puzzles scholars — To gain it, Men have borne Contempt of Generations And Crucifixion, shown — Faith slips — and laughs, and rallies — Blushes, if any see — Plucks at a twig of Evidence — And asks a Vane, the way — Much Gesture, from the Pulpit — Strong Hallelujahs roll — Narcotics cannot still the Tooth That nibbles at the soul —



512
The Soul has Bandaged moments — When too appalled to stir — She feels some ghastly Fright come up And stop to look at her —

Salute her — with long fingers — Caress her freezing hair — Sip, Goblin, from the very lips The Lover — hovered — o'er — Unworthy, that a thought so mean Accost a Theme — so — fair —

The soul has moments of Escape — When bursting all the doors — She dances like a Bomb, abroad, And swings upon the Hours,

As do the Bee — delirious borne — Long Dungeoned from his Rose — Touch Liberty — then know no more, But Noon, and Paradise —

The Soul's retaken moments — When, Felon led along, With shackles on the plumed feet, And staples, in the Song,

The Horror welcomes her, again, These, are not brayed of Tongue —



520
I started Early — Took my Dog — And visited the Sea — The Mermaids in the Basement Came out to look at me —

And Frigates — in the Upper Floor Extended Hempen Hands — Presuming Me to be a Mouse — Aground — upon the Sands —

But no Man moved Me — till the Tide Went past my simple Shoe — And past my Apron — and my Belt — And past my Bodice — too —

And made as He would eat me up — As wholly as a Dew Upon a Dandelion's Sleeve — And then — I started — too —

And He — He followed — close behind — I felt his Silver Heel Upon my Ankle — Then my Shoes Would overflow with Pearl —

Until We met the Solid Town — No One He seemed to know — And bowing — with a Might look — At me — The Sea withdrew —



566
A Dying Tiger — moaned for Drink — I hunted all the Sand — I caught the Dripping of a Rock And bore it in my Hand —

His Mighty Balls — in death were thick — But searching — I could see A Vision on the Retina Of Water — and of me —

'Twas not my blame — who sped too slow — 'Twas not his blame — who died While I was reaching him — But 'twas — the fact that He was dead —



576
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 —



585
I like to see it lap the Miles — And lick the Valleys up — And stop to feed itself at Tanks — And then — prodigious step

Around a Pile of Mountains — And supercilious peer In Shanties — by the sides of Roads — And then a Quarry pare

To fit its Ribs And crawl between Complaining all the while In horrid — hooting stanza — Then chase itself down Hill —

And neigh like Boanerges — Then — punctual as a Star Stop — docile and omnipotent At its own stable door —



587
Empty my Heart, of Thee — Its single Artery — Begin, and leave Thee out — Simply Extinction's Date —

Much Billow hath the Sea — One Baltic — They — Subtract Thyself, in play, And not enough of me Is left — to put away — "Myself" meanth Thee —

Erase the Root — no Tree — Thee — then — no me — The Heavens stripped — Eternity's vast pocket, picked —



630
The Lightning playeth — all the while — But when He singeth — then — Ourselves are conscious He exist — And we approach Him — stern —

With Insulators — and a Glove — Whose short — sepulchral Bass Alarms us — tho' His Yellow feet May pass — and counterpass —

Upon the Ropes — above our Head — Continual — with the News — Nor We so much as check our speech — Nor stop to cross Ourselves —



739
I many times thought Peace had come When Peace was far away — As Wrecked Men — deem they sight the Land — At Centre of the Sea —

And struggle slacker — but to prove As hopelessly as I — How many the fictitious Shores — Before the Harbor be —



747
It dropped so low — in my Regard — I heard it hit the Ground — And go to pieces on the Stones At bottom of my Mind —

Yet blamed the Fate that flung it — less Than I denounced Myself, For entertaining Plated Wares Upon my Silver Shelf —



754
My Life had stood — a Loaded Gun — In Corners — till a Day The Owner passed — identified — And carried Me away —

And now We roam in Sovereign Woods — And now We hunt the Doe — And every time I speak for Him — The Mountains straight reply —

And do I smile, such cordial light Upon the Valley glow — It is as a Vesuvian face Had let its pleasure through —

And when at Night — Our good Day done — I guard My Master's Head — 'Tis better than the Eider-Duck's Deep Pillow — to have shared —

To foe of His — I'm deadly foe — None stir the second time — On whom I lay a Yellow Eye — Or an emphatic Thumb —

Though I than He — may longer live He longer must — than I — For I have but the power to kill, Without — the power to die —



928
The Heart has narrow Banks It measures like the Sea In mighty — unremitting Bass And Blue Monotony

Till Hurricane bisect And as itself discerns Its sufficient Area The Heart convulsive learns

That Calm is but a Wall Of unattempted Gauze An instant's Push demolishes A Questioning — dissolves.



986
A narrow Fellow in the Grass Occasionally rides — You may have met Him — did you not His notice sudden is —

The Grass divides as with a Comb — A spotted shaft is seen — And then it closes at your feet And opens further on —

He likes a Boggy Acre A Floor too cool for Corn — Yet when a Boy, and Barefoot — I more than once at Noon Have passed, I thought, a Whip lash Unbraiding in the Sun When stooping to secure it It wrinkled, and was gone —

Several of Nature's People I know, and they know me — I feel for them a transport Of cordiality —

But never met this Fellow Attended, or alone Without a tighter breathing And Zero at the Bone —



1707
Winter under cultivation Is as arable as Spring.