“It's all i have to bring todaythis and my heart besidethis and my heart and all the fields and all the meadows widebe sure to countshould i forgetsomeone the sum could tellthis and my heart and all the beeswhich in the clovers dwell”
“It was not death, for I stood up,And all the dead lie down;It was not night, for all the bellsPut out their tongues, for noon.It was not frost, for on my fleshI felt siroccos crawl,Nor fire, for just my marble feetCould keep a chancel cool.And yet it tasted like them all;The figures I have seenSet orderly, for burial,Reminded me of mine,As if my life were shavenAnd fitted to a frame,And could not breathe without a key;And I was like midnight, some,When everything that ticked has stopped,And space stares, all around,Or grisly frosts, first autumn morns,Repeal the beating ground.But most like chaos,--stopless, cool,Without a chance or spar,--Or even a report of landTo justify despair.”
“I held a jewel in my fingers And went to sleep. The day was warm, and winds were prosy; I said: "'T will keep."I woke and chid my honest fingers,—The gem was gone; And now an amethyst remembrance Is all I own.”
“I took my Power in my Hand --And went against the World --'Twas not so much as David -- had --But I -- was twice as bold --I aimed by Pebble -- but MyselfWas all the one that fell --Was it Goliath -- was too large --Or was myself -- too small?”
“My life closed twice before its close; It yet remains to seeIf Immortality unveil A third event to me,So huge, so hopeless to conceive, As these that twice befell.Parting is all we know of heaven, And all we need of hell.”
“I can wade Grief—Whole Pools of it—I'm used to that—But the least push of JoyBreaks up my feet—And I tip—drunken—Let no Pebble—smile—'Twas the New Liquor—That was all!”
“If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.”