Drowning is not so pitiful    As the attempt to rise.    Three times, ‘t is said, a sinking man    Comes up to face the skies,    And then declines forever    To that…

 Let me not mar that perfect dream    By an auroral stain,    But so adjust my daily night    That it will come again.

It dropped so low in my regard    I heard it hit the ground,    And go to pieces on the stones    At bottom of my mind;     Yet blamed the…

Who never wanted, — maddest joy    Remains to him unknown:    The banquet of abstemiousness    Surpasses that of wine.     Within its hope, though yet ungrasped    Desire’s perfect goal,    No nearer, lest…

 A deed knocks first at thought,    And then it knocks at will.    That is the manufacturing spot,    And will at home and well.     It then goes out an…

Death is like the insect    Menacing the tree,    Competent to kill it,    But decoyed may be.     Bait it with the balsam,    Seek it with the knife,    Baffle, if it cost…

 Death is a dialogue between    The spirit and the dust.    “Dissolve,” says Death. The Spirit, “Sir,    I have another trust.”     Death doubts it, argues from the ground.    The Spirit…

Apparently with no surprise    To any happy flower,    The frost beheads it at its play    In accidental power.    The blond assassin passes on,    The sun proceeds unmoved    To measure off another…

There’s something quieter than sleep    Within this inner room!    It wears a sprig upon its breast,    And will not tell its name.     Some touch it and some kiss…

 The day came slow, till five o’clock,    Then sprang before the hills    Like hindered rubies, or the light    A sudden musket spills.     The purple could not keep the…