Why do I love You, Sir?

"Why do I love" You, Sir?
Because --
The Wind does not require the Grass
To answer -- Wherefore when He pass
She cannot keep Her place.

Because He knows -- and
Do not You --
And We know not --
Enough for Us
The Wisdom it be so --

The Lightning -- never asked an Eye
Wherefore it shut -- when He was by --
Because He knows it cannot speak --
And reasons not contained --
-- Of Talk --
There be --

A Prison gets to be a friend

A Prison gets to be a friend --Between its Ponderous faceAnd Ours -- a Kinsmanship express --And in its narrow Eyes --We come to look with gratitudeFor the appointed BeamIt deal us -- stated as our food --And hungered for -- the same --We learn to know the Planks --That answer to Our feet --So miserable a sound -- at first --Nor ever now -- so sweet --As plashing in the Pools --When Memory was a

Where I have lost, I softer tread

Where I have lost, I softer tread --I sow sweet flower from garden bed --I pause above that vanished headAnd mourn.Whom I have lost, I pious guardFrom accent harsh, or ruthless word --Feeling as if their pillow heard,Though stone!When I have lost, you'll know by this --A Bonnet black -- A dusk surplice --A little tremor in my voice Like this!Why, I have lost, the people knowWho dressed in flocks

Forever at His side to walk

Forever at His side to walk --The smaller of the two!Brain of His Brain --Blood of His Blood --Two lives -- One Being -- now --Forever of His fate to taste --If grief -- the largest part --If joy -- to put my piece awayFor that beloved Heart --All life -- to know each other --Whom we can never learn --And bye and bye -- a Change --Called Heaven --Rapt Neighborhoods of Men --Just finding out --

Many a phrase has the English language

Many a phrase has the English language --I have heard but one --Low as the laughter of the Cricket,Loud, as the Thunder's Tongue --Murmuring, like old Caspian Choirs,When the Tide's a' lull --Saying itself in new inflection --Like a Whippoorwill --Breaking in bright OrthographyOn my simple sleep --Thundering its Prospective --Till I stir, and weep --Not for the Sorrow, done me --But the push of

Her -- "last Poems"

Her -- "last Poems" --
Poets -- ended --
Silver -- perished -- with her Tongue --
Not on Record -- bubbled other,
Flute -- or Woman --
So divine --
Not unto its Summer -- Morning
Robin -- uttered Half the Tune --
Gushed too free for the Adoring --
From the Anglo-Florentine --
Late -- the Praise --
'Tis dull -- conferring
On the Head too High to Crown --
Diadem -- or Ducal Showing --
Be its Grave

I know that He exists

I know that He exists.Somewhere -- in Silence --He has hid his rare lifeFrom our gross eyes.'Tis an instant's play.'Tis a fond Ambush --Just to make BlissEarn her own surprise!But -- should the playProve piercing earnest --Should the glee -- glaze --In Death's -- stiff -- stare --Would not the funLook too expensive!Would not the jest --Have crawled too far!

I have a King, who does not speak

I have a King, who does not speak --So -- wondering -- thro' the hours meekI trudge the day away --Half glad when it is night, and sleep,If, haply, thro' a dream, to peepIn parlors, shut by day.And if I do -- when morning comes --It is as if a hundred drumsDid round my pillow roll,And shouts fill all my Childish sky,And Bells keep saying "Victory"From steeples in my soul!And if I don't -- the

I'm sorry for the Dead -- Today

I'm sorry for the Dead -- Today --
It's such congenial times
Old Neighbors have at fences --
It's time o' year for Hay.

And Broad -- Sunburned Acquaintance
Discourse between the Toil --
And laugh, a homely species
That makes the Fences smile --

It seems so straight to lie away
From all of the noise of Fields --
The Busy Carts -- the fragrant Cocks --
The Mower's Metre -- Steals --

A Trouble

No Notice gave She, but a Change

No Notice gave She, but a Change --No Message, but a Sigh --For Whom, the Time did not sufficeThat She should specify.She was not warm, though Summer shoneNor scrupulous of coldThough Rime by Rime, the steady FrostUpon Her Bosom piled --Of shrinking ways -- she did not frightThough all the Village looked --But held Her gravity aloft --And met the gaze -- direct --And when adjusted like a SeedIn

Musicians wrestle everywhere

Musicians wrestle everywhere --All day -- among the crowded airI hear the silver strife --And -- walking -- long before the morn --Such transport breaks upon the townI think it that "New Life"!If is not Bird -- it has no nest --Nor "Band" -- in brass and scarlet -- drest --Nor Tamborin -- nor Man --It is not Hymn from pulpit read --The "Morning Stars" the Treble ledOn Time's first Afternoon!Some

Rearrange a "Wife's" affection!

Rearrange a "Wife's" affection!
When they dislocate my Brain!
Amputate my freckled Bosom!
Make me bearded like a man!

Blush, my spirit, in thy Fastness --
Blush, my unacknowledged clay --
Seven years of troth have taught thee
More than Wifehood every may!

Love that never leaped its socket --
Trust entrenched in narrow pain --
Constancy thro' fire -- awarded --
Anguish -- bare of anodyne!

'Tis One by One -- the Father counts

'Tis One by One -- the Father counts --
And then a Tract between
Set Cypherless -- to teach the Eye
The Value of its Ten --

Until the peevish Student
Acquire the Quick of Skill --
Then Numerals are dowered back --
Adorning all the Rule --

'Tis mostly Slate and Pencil --
And Darkness on the School
Distracts the Children's fingers --
Still the Eternal Rule

Regards least Cypherer alike
With

Twas Love -- not me, poem by Emily Dickinson

'Twas Love -- not me --
Oh punish -- pray --
The Real one died for Thee --
Just Him -- not me --

Such Guilt -- to love Thee -- most!
Doom it beyond the Rest --
Forgive it -- last --
'Twas base as Jesus -- most!

Let Justice not mistake --
We Two -- looked so alike --
Which was the Guilty Sake --
'Twas Love's -- Now Strike!

A Wife -- at daybreak I shall be

A Wife -- at daybreak I shall be --Sunrise -- Hast thou a Flag for me?At Midnight, I am but a Maid,How short it takes to make a Bride --Then -- Midnight, I have passed from theeUnto the East, and Victory --Midnight -- Good Night! I hear them call,The Angels bustle in the Hall --Softly my Future climbs the Stair,I fumble at my Childhood's prayerSo soon to be a Child no more --Eternity, I'm coming

Because He loves Her, by Emily Dickinson

Because He loves Her
We will pry and see if she is fair
What difference is on her Face
From Features others wear.

It will not harm her magic pace
That we so far behind --
Her Distances propitiate
As Forests touch the Wind

Not hoping for his notice vast
But nearer to adore
'Tis Glory's far sufficiency
That makes our trying poor.

I Taste a Liquor

I taste a liquor never brewedFrom Tankards scooped in Pearl.Not all the vats upon the RhineYield such an alcohol!Inebriate of air - am IAnd Debauchee of Dew.Reeling - thro endless summer daysFrom inns of molten blue.When "Landlords" turn the drunken beeOut of the foxglove's door -When butterflies - renounce their "drams"I shall but drink the more!Till seraphs swing their snowy hatsAnd saints - to

To lose Thee

To lose thee, sweeter than to gainAll other hearts I knew.?Tis true the drought is destituteBut, then, I had the dew!The Caspian has its realms of sand,Its other realm of sea.Without this sterile perquisiteNo Caspian could be.

I know of people in the Grave

I know of people in the Grave
Who would be very glad
To know the news I know tonight
If they the chance had had.

'Tis this expands the least event
And swells the scantest deed --
My right to walk upon the Earth
If they this moment had.