Poetessa, nato venerdì 10 dicembre 1830 a Amherst, Massachusetts (USA - Stati Uniti d'America), morto sabato 15 maggio 1886 a Amherst, Massachusetts (USA - Stati Uniti d'America)
Glee - The great storm is over - Four - have recovered the Land - Forty - gone down together - Into the boiling Sand - Ring - for the scant Salvation - Toll - for the bonnie Souls - Neighbor - and friend - and Bridegroom - Spinning upon the Shoals -
How they will tell the Story - When Winter shake the Door - Till the Children urge - But the Forty - Did they - come back no more?
Then a silence - suffuse the Story - And a softness - the Teller's eye - And the Children - no further question - And only the Sea - reply.
At leisure is the Soul That gets a Staggering Blow - The Width of Life - before it spreads Without a thing to do - It begs you give it Work - But just the placing Pins - Or humblest Patchwork - Children do - To still it's noisy Hands.
Dont put up my Thread & Needle - I'll begin to Sow When the Birds begin to whistle - Better stitches - so - These were bent - my sight got crooked - When my mind - is plain I'll do seams - a Queen's endeavor Would not blush to own -
Hems - too fine for Lady's tracing To the sightless Knot - Tucks - of dainty interspersion - Like a dotted Dot -
Leave my Needle in the furrow - Where I put it down - I can make the zigzag stitches Straight - when I am strong -
Till then - dreaming I am sowing Fetch the seam I missed - Closer - so I - at my sleeping - Still surmise I stitch.
I rose - because He sank - I thought it would be opposite - But when his power bent - My Soul grew straight. I cheered my fainting Prince - I sang firm - even - Chants - I helped his Film - with Hymn -
And when the Dews drew off That held his Forehead stiff - I gave him - Balm - for Balm -
I told him Best - must pass Through this low Arch of Flesh - No Casque so brave It spurn the Grave -
I told him Worlds I knew Where Emperors grew - Who recollected us If we were true -
And so with Thews of Hymn - And Sinew from within - And ways I knew not that I knew - till then - I lifted Him.
Our journey had advanced - Our feet were almost come To that odd Fork in Being's Road - Eternity - by Term - Our pace took sudden awe - Our feet - reluctant - led - Before - were Cities - but Between - The Forest of the Dead -
Retreat - was out of Hope - Behind - a Sealed Route - Eternity's Cool Flag - in front - And God - at every Gate.
In falling Timbers buried - There breathed a Man - Outside - the Spades - were plying - The Lungs - within - Could He - know - they sought Him - Could They - know - He breathed - Horrid Sand Partition - Neither - could be heard -
Never slacked the Diggers - But when Spades had done - Oh, Reward of Anguish, It was dying - Then.
They shut me up in Prose - As when a little Girl They put me in the Closet - Because they liked me "still" - Still! Could themself have peeped - And seen my Brain - go round - They might as wise have lodged a Bird For Treason - in the Pound -
Himself has but to will And easy as a Star Look down upon Captivity - And laugh - No more have I.
It would have starved a Gnat - To live so small as I - And yet, I was a living child - With Food's necessity Upon me - like a Claw - I could no more remove Than I could modify a Leech - Or make a Dragon - move -
Not like the Gnat - had I - The privilege to fly And seek a Dinner for myself - How mightier He - than I!
Nor like Himself - the Art Upon the Window Pane To gad my little Being out - And not begin - again -
I see thee better - in the Dark - I do not need a Light - The Love of Thee - a Prism be - Excelling Violet - I see thee better for the Years That pile themselves - between - The Miner's Lamp - sufficient be - To nullify the Mine -
And in the Grave - I see Thee best - It's little Panels be Aglow - All ruddy - with the Light I held so high, for Thee -
What need of Day - To Those whose Dark - hath so - surpassing Sun - It deem it be - Continually - At the Meridian?
You'll find - it when you try to die - The Easier to let go - For recollecting such as went - You could not spare - you know. And though their places somewhat filled - As did their Marble names With Moss - they never grew so full - You chose the newer names -
And when this World - sets further back - As Dying - say it does - The former love - distincter grows - And supersedes the fresh -
And Thought of them - so fair invites - It looks too tawdry Grace To stay behind - with just the Toys We bought - to ease their place -