Three years she grew in sun and shower,
Then Nature said, "A lovelier flower
On earth was never sown;
This Child I to myself will take;
She shall be mine, and I will make
A Lady of my own.
"Myself will to my darling be
Both law and impulse: and with me
The Girl, in rock and plain
......
O TO make the most jubilant poem!
Even to set off these, and merge with these, the carols of Death.
O full of music! full of manhood, womanhood, infancy!
Full of common employments! full of grain and trees.
O for the voices of animals! O for the swiftness and balance of
fishes!
O for the dropping of rain-drops in a poem!
O for the sunshine, and motion of waves in a poem.
......
Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!
Bird thou never wert,
That from Heaven, or near it,
Pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.
Higher still and higher
From the earth thou springest
Like a cloud of fire;
The blue deep thou wingest,
......
A Whimsey
AH, child, thou art but half thy darling mother's;
Hers couldst thou wholly be,
My light in thee would outglow all in others;
She would relive to me.
But niggard Nature's trick of birth
Bars, lest she overjoy,
Renewal of the loved on earth
Save with alloy.
......
IN youth from rock to rock I went
From hill to hill in discontent
Of pleasure high and turbulent,
Most pleased when most uneasy;
But now my own delights I make,---
Thirst at every rill can slake,
And gladly Nature's love partake,
Of Thee, sweet Daisy!
Thee Winter in the garland wears
......
A hand that is held tight,
a silent kiss
A cup of tea, a hearty meal
Someone to laugh with
and to chatter without breaks
A hug, a squeeze
Before you wake and remember
that you were dreaming of what was
A smile, a silent glance
......
After the aroma of the floral displays of the day
The seamless trail of cars in tow
Accompanying the shiny black hearse
Which proudly transported
An honoured guest
In a coffin that was like no other
Preceding an entourage of fellow mourners,
Tissues wiping tears from sullen faces,
A glimpse caught through the reflection
......
I see you
I hear you
But no voice is heard
We speak but not with words
Every movement has meaning
A blink, twitch or crack of a knuckle
All can be read from a code unsaid
They look at us like we're crazy
But all we're doing is speaking
Speaking in silence.
......
Almost withered, the lean, leafless flower
Smiles in half of twigless green
Like an aged woman
Banished from the heaven of beauty--
Smiling as a gesture to shower, in vain,
The sprinkles of youthfulness of expired skin,
Rusting in ageing bony pits
As if left in lurch like an exploded balloon!
......
I SING the Body electric;
The armies of those I love engirth me, and I engirth them;
They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them,
And discorrupt them, and charge them full with the charge of the
Soul.
Was it doubted that those who corrupt their own bodies conceal
themselves;
And if those who defile the living are as bad as they who defile the
dead?
......