Enclosed Poems from the Dickinson-Higginson Letters

ENCLOSED POEMS FROM THE DICKINSON-HIGGINSON LETTERS

216

Safe in their Alabaster Chambers--
Untouched by Morning--
And untouched by Noon--
Lie the meek members of the Resurrection--
Rafter of Satin--and Roof of Stone!

Grand go the Years--in the Crescent--above them--
Worlds scoop their Arcs--
And Firmaments--row--
Diadems--drop--and Doges--surrender--
Soundless as dots--on a Disc of Snow--

[Version of 1861]

319

The nearest Dream recedes--unrealized--
The Heaven we chase,
Like the June Bee--before the School Boy,
Invites the Race--
Stoops--to an easy Clover--
Dips--evades--teases--deploys--
Then--to the Royal Clouds
Lifts his light Pinnace--
Heedless of the Boy--
Staring--bewildered--at the mocking sky--
Homesick for steadfast Honey--
Ah, the Bee flies not
That brews that rare variety!

320

We play at Paste--
Till qualified, for Pearl--
Then, drop the Paste--
And deem ourselves a fool--

The Shapes--though--were similar
And our new Hands
Learned Gem-Tactics--
Practicing Sands--

318

I'll tell you how the Sun rose--
A Ribbon at a time--
The Steeples swam in Amethyst--
The news, like Squirrels, ran--
The Hills untied their Bonnets--
The Bobolinks--begun--
Then I said softly to myself--
"That must have been the Sun!"
But how he set--I know not--
There seemed a purple stile
That little Yellow boys and girls
Were climbing all the while--
Till when they reached the other side,
A Dominie in Gray--
Put gently up the evening Bars--
And led the flock away--

299

Your Riches--taught me--Poverty.
Myself--a Millionaire
In little Wealths, as Girls could boast
Till broad as Buenos Ayre--

You drifted your Dominions--
A Different Peru--
And I esteemed all Poverty
For Life's Estate with you--

Of Mines, I know little--myself--
But just the names, of Gems--
The Colors the Commonest--
And scarce of Diadems--

So much, that did I meet the Queen--
Her Glory I should know--
But this, must be a different Wealth--
To miss it--beggars so--

I'm sure 'tis India--all Day--
To those who look on You--
Without a stint--without a blame,
Might I--but be the Jew--

I'm sure it is Golconda--
Beyond my power to deem--
To have a smile for Mine--each Day,
How better, than a Gem!

At least, it solaces to know
That there exists--a Gold--
Altho' I prove it, just in time
Its distance--to behold--

Its far--far Treasure to surmise--
And estimate the Pearl--
That slipped my simple fingers through--
While just a Girl at School.

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 look 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.

322

There came a Day at Summer's full,
Entirely for me--
I thought that such were for the Saints,
Where Resurrections--be--

The Sun, as common, went abroad,
The flowers, accustomed, blew,
As if no soul the solstice passed
That maketh all things new--

The time was scarce profaned, by speech--
The symbol of a word
Was needless, as at Sacrament,
The Wardrobe--of our Lord--

Each was to each The Sealed Church,
Permitted to commune this--time--
Lest we too awkard show
At Supper of the Lamb.

The Hours slid fast--as Hours will,
Clutched tight, by greedy hands--
So faces on two Decks, look back,
Bound to opposing lands--

And so when all the time had leaked,
Without external sound
Each bound to the Other's Crucifix--
We gave no other Bond--

Sufficient troth, that we shall rise--
Deposed--at length, the Grave--
To that new Marriage,
Justified--through Calvaries of Love--

321

Of all the Sounds despatched abroad,
There's not a Charge to me
Like that old measure in the Boughs--
That phraseless Melody--
The Wind does--working like a Hand,
Whose fingers Comb the Sky--
Then quiver down--with tufts of Tune--
Permitted Gods, and me--

Inheritance, it is, to us--
Beyond the Art to Earn--
Beyond the trait to take away
By Robber, since the Gain
Is gotten not of fingers--
And inner than the Bone--
His golden, for the whole of Days,
And even in the Urn,
I cannot vouch the merry Dust
Do not arise and play
In some odd fashion of its own,
Some quainter Holiday,
When Winds go round and round in Bands--
And thrum upon the door,
And Birds take places, overhead,
To bear them Orchestra.

I crave Him grace of Summer Boughs,
If such an Outcast be--
Who never heard that fleshless Chant--
Rise--solemn--on the Tree,
As if some Caravan of Sound
Off Deserts, in the Sky,
Had parted Rank,
Then knit, and swept--
In Seamless Company--

86

South Winds jostle them--
Bumblebees come--
Hover--hesitate--
Drink, and are gone--

Butterflies pause
On their passage Cashmere--
I--softly plucking,
Present them here!

325

Of Tribulation, these are They,
Denoted by the White--
The Spangled Gowns, a lesser Rank
Of Victors--designate--

All these--did conquer--
But the ones who overcame most times--
Wear nothing commoner than Snow--
Nor Ornament, but Palms--

Surrender--is a sort unknown--
On this superior soil--
Defeat--an outgrown Anguish--
Remembered, as the Mile

Our panting Ankle barely passed--
When Night devoured the Road--
But we--stood whispering in the House--
And all we said--was "Saved"!

324

Some keep the Sabbath going to Church--
I keep it, staying at Home--
With a Bobolink for a Chorister--
And an Orchard, for a Dome--

Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice--
I just wear my Wings--
And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church,
Our little Sexton--sings.

God preaches, a noted Clergyman--
And the sermon is never long,
So instead of getting to Heaven, at last--
I'm going, all along.

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!

327

Before I got my eye put out
I liked as well to see--
As other Creatures, that have Eyes
And know no other way--

But were it told to me--Today--
That I might have the sky
For mine--I tell you that my Heart
Would split, for size of me--

The Meadows--mine--
The Mountains--mine--
All Forests--Stintless Stars--
As much of Noon as I could take
Between my finite eyes--

The Motions of the Dipping Birds--
The Morning's Amber Road--
For mine--to look at when I liked--
The News would strike me dead--

So safer--guess--with just my soul
Upon the Window pane--
Where other Creatures put their eyes--
Incautious--of the Sun--

326

I cannot dance upon my Toes--
No Man instructed me--
But oftentimes, among my mind,
A Glee possesseth me,

That had I Ballet knowledge--
Would put itself abroad
In Pirouette to blanch a Troupe--
Or lay a Prima, mad,

And though I had no Gown of Gauze--
No Ringlet, to my Hair,
Nor hopped to Audiences--like Birds,
One Claw upon the Air,

Nor tossed my shape in Eider Balls,
Nor rolled on wheels of snow
Till I was out of sight, in sound,
The House encore me so--

Nor any know I know the Art
I mention--ease--Here--
Nor any Placard boast me--
It's full as Opera--

683

The Soul unto itself
Is an imperial friend
Or the most agonizing Spy--
An Enemy--could send--

Secure against its own--
No treason it can fear--
Itself--its Sovereign--of itself
The Soul should stand in Awe--

286

That after Horror--that 'twas us--
That passed the mouldering Pier--
Just as the Granite Crumb let go--
Our Savior, by a Hair--

A second more, had dropped too deep
For Fisherman to plumb--
The very profile of the Thought
Puts Recollection numb--

The possibility--to pass
Without a Moment's Bell--
Into Conjecture's presence--
Is like a Face of Steel--
That suddenly looks into ours
With a metallic grin--
The Cordiality of Death
Who drills his Welcome in--

827

The Only News I know
Is Bulletins all Day
From Immortality.

The Only Shows I see--
Tomorrow and Today--
Perchance Eternity--

The Only One I meet
Is God--The Only Street--
Existence--This traversed

If Other News there be--
Or Admirabler Show--
I'll tell it You--

1068

Further in Summer than the Birds
Pathetic from the Grass
A minor Nation celebrates
Its unobtrusive Mass.

No Ordinance be seen
So gradual the Grace
A pensive Custom it becomes
Enlarging Loneliness.

Antiquest felt at Noon
When August burning low
Arise this spectral Canticle
Repose to typify

Remit as yet no Grace
No Furrow on the Glow
Yet a Druidic Difference
Enhances Nature now

816

A Death blow is a Life blow to Some
Who till they died, did not alive become--
Who had they lived, had died but when
They died, Vitality begun.

The Snake

[As published anonymously in The Springfield Republican, February 14 1866]

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--

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
Unbrading 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--

228

Blazing in Gold and quenching in Purple
Leaping like Leopards to the Sky
Then at the feet of the old Horizon
Laying her spotted Face to die
Stooping as low as the Otter's Window
Touching the Roof and tinting the Barn
Kissing her Bonnet to the Meadow
And the Juggler of Day is gone

829

Ample make this Bed--
Make this Bed with Awe--
In it wait till Judgment break
Excellent and Fair.

Be its Matress straight--
Be its Pillow round--
Let no Sunrise' yellow noise
Interrupt this Ground--

1070

To undertake is to achieve
By Undertaking blent
With fortitude of obstacle
And toward encouragement

That fine Suspicion, Natures must
Permitted to revere
Departed Standards and the few
Criterion Sources here

1540

As imperceptibly as Grief
The Summer lapsed away--
To imperceptible at last
To seem like Perfidy--
A Quietness distilled
As Twilight long begun,
Or Nature spending with herself
Sequestered Afternoon--
The Dusk drew earlier in--
The Morning foreign shone--
A courteous, yet harrowing Grace,
As Guest, that would be gone--
And thus, without a Wing
Or service of a Keel
Our Summer made her light escape
Into the Beautiful.

686

They say that "Time assuages"--
Time never did assuage--
An actual suffering strengthens
As Sinews do, with age--

Time is a Test of Trouble--
But not a Remedy--
If such it prove, it prove too
There was no Malady--

815

The Luxury to apprehend
The Luxury 'twould be
To look at Thee a single time
An Epicure of Me

In whatsoever Presence makes
Till for a further Food
I scarcely recollect to starve
So first am I supplied--

The Luxury to meditate
The Luxury it was
To banquet on thy Countenance
A Sumptuousness bestows

On plainer Days, whose Table far
As Certainty can see
Is laden with a single Crumb
The Consciousness of Thee.

1181

When I hoped I feared--
Since I hoped I dared
Everywhere alone
As a Church remain--
Spectre cannot harm--
Serpent cannot charm--
He deposes Doom
Who hath suffered him--

1184

The Days that we can spare
Are those a Function die
Or Friend or Nature--stranded then
In our Economy

Our Estimates a Scheme--
Our Ultimates a Sham--
We let go all of Time without
Arithmetic of him--

1183

Step lightly on this narrow spot--
The broadest Land that grows
Is not so ample as the Breast
These Emerald Seams enclose.

Step lofty, for this name be told
As far as Cannon dwell
Or Flag subsist or Fame export
Her deathless Syllable.

1182

Remembrance has a Rear and a Front--
'Tis something like a House--
Is has a Garret also
For Refuse and the Mouse.

Besides the deepest Cellar
That ever Mason laid--
Look to it by its Fathoms
Ourselves be not pursued--

1205

Immortal is an ample word
When what we need is by
But when it leaves us for a time
'Tis a necessity.

Of Heaven above the firmest proof
We fundamental know
Except for its marauding Hand
It had been Heaven below.

1209

To disappear enhances--
The Man that runs away
Is tinctured for an instant
With Immortality

But yesterday a Vagrant--
Today in Memory lain
With superstitious value
We tamper with "Again"

But "Never" as far as Honor
Withdraws the Worthless thing
And impotent to cherish
We hasten to adorn--

Of Death the sternest function
That just as we discern
The Excellence defies us--
Securest gathered then

The Fruit perverse to plucking,
But leaning to the Sight
With the ecstatic limit
Of unobtained Delight--

1207

He preached upon "Breadth" till it argued him narrow--
The Broad are too broad to define
And of "Truth" until it proclaimed him a Liar--
The Truth never flaunted a Sign--

Simplicity fled from his counterfeit presence
As Gold the Pyrites would shun--
What confusion would cover the innocent Jesus
To meet so enabled a Man!

1210

The Sea said "Come" to the Brook--
The Brook said "Let me grow"--
The Sea said "Then you will be a Sea--
I want a Brook--Come now"!

The Sea said "Go" to the Sea--
The Sea said "I am he
You cherished"--"Learned Waters--
Wisdom is stale--to Me"

1206

The Show is not the Show
But they that go--
Menagerie to me
My Neighbor be--
Fair Play--
Both went to see--

1260

Because that you are going
And never coming back
And I, however absolute,
May overlook your Track--

Because that Death is final,
However first it be,
This instant be suspended
Above Mortality--

Significance that each has lived
The other to detect
Discovery God himself
Could now annihilate

Eternity, Presumption
The instant I perceive
The you, who were Existence
Yourself forgot to live--

The "Life that is" will then have been
A thing I never knew--
As Paradise fictitious
Until the Realm of you--

The "Life that is to be," to me,
A Residence too plain
Unless in my Redeemer's Face
I recognize your own--

Of Immortality who doubts
He may exchange with me
Curtailed by your obscuring Face
Of everything but He--

Of Heaven and Hell I also yield
The Right to reprehend
To whoso would commute this Face
For his less priceless Friend.

If "God is Love" as he admits
We think that he must be
Because he is a "jealous God"
He tells us certainly

If "All is possible with" him
As he besides concedes
He will refund us finally
Our confiscated Gods--

1249

The Stars are old, that stood for me--
The West a little worn--
Yet newer glows the only Gold
I ever cared to earn--

Presuming on that lone result
Her infinite disdain
But vanquished her with my defeat
'Twas Victory was slain.

1259

A Wind that rose
Though not a Leaf
In any Forest stirred
But with itself did cold engage
Beyond the Realm of Bird--
A Wind that woke a lone Delight
Like Separation's Swell
Restored in Arctic Confidence
To the Invisible--

1298

The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants--
At Evening, it is not--
At Morning, in a Truffled Hut
It stop upon a Spot

As if it tarried always
And yet its whole Career
Is shorter than a Snake's Delay
And fleeter than a Tare--

'Tis Vegetation's Juggler--
The Germ of Alibi--
Doth like a Bubble antedate
And like a Bubble, hie--

I feel as if the Grass was pleased
To have it intermit--
This surreptitious scion
Of Summer's circumspect.

Had Nature any supple Face
Or could she one contemn--
Had nature an Apostate--
That Mushroom--it is Him!

1353

The last of Summer is Delight--
Deterred by Retrospect.
'Tis Ecstasy's revealed Review--
Enchantment's Syndicate.

Too meet it--nameless as it is--
Without celestial Mail--
Audacious as without a Knock
To walk within the Veil.

1354

The Heart is the Capital of the Mind--
The Mind is a single State--
The Heart and the Mind together make
A single Continent--

One--is the Population--
Numerous enough--
This ecstatic Nation
Seek--it is Yourself.

1355

The Mind lives on the Heart
Like any Parasite--
If that is full of Meat
The Mind is fat.
But if the Heart omit
Emaciate the Wit--
The Aliment of it
So absolute.

1356

The Rat is the concisest Tenant.
He pays no Rent.
Repudiates the Obligation--
On Schemes intent

Balking our Wit
To sound or circumvent--
Hate cannot harm
A foe so reticent--
Neither Decree prohibit him--
Lawful as Equilibrium.

1357

"Faithful to the end" Amended
From the Heavenly Clause--
Constancy with a Proviso
Constancy abhors--

"Crowns of Life" are servile Prizes
To the stately Heart,
Given for the Giving, solely,
No Emolument.

[Version I]

"Faithful to the end" Amended
From the Heavenly Clause--
Lucrative indeed the offer
But the Heart withdraws--

"I will give" the base Proviso--
Spare your "Crown of Life"--
Those it fits, too fair to wear it--
Try it on Yourself--

[Version II]

1358

The Treason of an accent
Might Ecstasy transfer--
Of her effacing Fathom
Is no Recoverer--

[Version I]

The Treason of an Accent
Might vilify the Joy--
To breathe--corrode the rapture
Of Sanctity to be--

[Version II]

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