Mad for Poetry

When night is almost done,    And sunrise grows so near    That we can touch the spaces,    It ‘s time to smooth the hair     And get the dimples ready,    And…

Could I but ride indefinite,    As doth the meadow-bee,    And visit only where I liked,    And no man visit me,     And flirt all day with buttercups,    And marry whom…

A door just opened on a street —    I, lost, was passing by —    An instant’s width of warmth disclosed,    And wealth, and company.     The door as sudden…

    Proud of my broken heart since thou didst break it,    Proud of the pain I did not feel till thee,    Proud of my night since thou with…

For each ecstatic instant    We must an anguish pay    In keen and quivering ratio    To the ecstasy.     For each beloved hour    Sharp pittances of years,    Bitter contested farthings    And coffers heaped…

Drab habitation of whom?    Tabernacle or tomb,    Or dome of worm,    Or porch of gnome,    Or some elf’s catacomb?

The spider as an artist    Has never been employed    Though his surpassing merit    Is freely certified     By every broom and Bridget    Throughout a Christian land.    Neglected son of genius,    I take…

Of all the souls that stand create    I have elected one.    When sense from spirit files away,    And subterfuge is done;     When that which is and that which…

 Softened by Time’s consummate plush,    How sleek the woe appears    That threatened childhood’s citadel    And undermined the years!     Bisected now by bleaker griefs,    We envy the despair    That devastated childhood’s…