P o e m s  undated

1651
[no autograph copy is known]

A Word made Flesh is seldom
And tremblingly partook
Nor then perhaps reported
But have I not mistook

5

Each one of us has tasted
with ecstasies of stealth
The very food debated
To our specific strength -

A Word that breathes distinctly

10

Has not the power to die
Cohesive as the Spirit
It may expire if He -
"Made Flesh and dwelt among us"
Could condescension be

15

Like this consent of Language
This loved Philology.


1654
[no autograph copy is known]

Beauty crowds me till I die
Beauty mercy have on me
But if I expire to-day
Let it be in sight of thee -


1672
[no autograph copy is known]

Lightly stepped a yellow star
To it's lofty place
Loosed the Moon her silver hat
From her lustral Face

5

All of Evening softly lit
As an Astral Hall
Father I observed to Heaven
You are punctual -


1681
[no autograph copy is known]

Speech is one symptom of Affection
And Silence one -
The perfectest communication
Is heard of none

5

Exists and it's indorsement
Is had within -
Behold said the Apostle
Yet had not seen!


1714
[no autograph copy is known]

By a departing light
We see acuter, quite,
Than by a wick that stays.
There's something in the flight

5

That clarifies the sight
And decks the rays


1720
[no autograph copy is known]

Had I known that the first was the last
I should have kept it longer.
Had I known that the last is the first
I should have drunk it stronger.

5

Cup, it was your fault,
Lip was not the liar.
No, lip it was yours,
Bliss was most to blame.


1726
[no autograph copy is known]

If all the griefs I am to have
Would only come today,
I am so happy I believe
They'd laugh and run away.

5

If all the joys I am to have
Would only come today,
They could not be so big as this
That happens to me now.


1731
[no autograph copy is known]

Love can do all but raise the Dead
I doubt if even that
From such a giant were withheld
Were flesh equivalent

5

But love is tired and must sleep,
And hungry and must graze
And so abets the shining Fleet
Till it is out of gaze.


1732
[no autograph copy is known]

My life closed twice before its close;
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me,

5

So huge, so hopeless to conceive
As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell.


1763
[no autograph copy is known]

Fame is a bee.
      It has a song -
It has a sting -
      Ah, too, it has a wing.


1775
[no autograph copy is known]

The earth has many keys,
      Where melody is not
Is the unknown peninsula.
Beauty is nature's fact.

5

But witness for her land,
And witness for her sea,
The cricket is her utmost
      Of elegy to me.