I gained it so,    By climbing slow,    By catching at the twigs that grow    Between the bliss and me.    It hung so high,    As well the sky    Attempt by strategy.     I…

   I found the phrase to every thought    I ever had, but one;    And that defies me, — as a hand    Did try to chalk the sun     To races…

 I felt a funeral in my brain,    And mourners, to and fro,    Kept treading, treading, till it seemed    That sense was breaking through.     And when they all were…

 I died for beauty, but was scarce    Adjusted in the tomb,    When one who died for truth was lain    In an adjoining room.     He questioned softly why I…

I bring an unaccustomed wine    To lips long parching, next to mine,    And summon them to drink.     Crackling with fever, they essay;    I turn my brimming eyes away,    And…

  I breathed enough to learn the trick,    And now, removed from air,    I simulate the breath so well,    That one, to be quite sure     The lungs are stirless,…

I had been hungry all the years;    My noon had come, to dine;    I, trembling, drew the table near,    And touched the curious wine.     ‘T was this on…

    How still the bells in steeples stand,    Till, swollen with the sky,    They leap upon their silver feet    In frantic melody!

How dare the robins sing,    When men and women hear    Who since they went to their account    Have settled with the year! —    Paid all that life had earned    In…

Hope is a subtle glutton;    He feeds upon the fair;    And yet, inspected closely,    What abstinence is there!     His is the halcyon table    That never seats but one,    And whatsoever…