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)
A Weight with Needles on the pounds - To push, and pierce, besides - That if the Flesh resist the Heft - The puncture - coolly tries - That not a pore be overlooked Of all this Compound Frame - As manifold for Anguish - As Species - be - for name.
A single Screw of Flesh Is all that pins the Soul That stands for Deity, to Mine, Upon my side the Veil - Once witnessed of the Gauze - It's name is put away As far from mine, as if no plight Had printed yesterday,
In tender - solemn Alphabet, My eyes just turned to see, When it was smuggled by my sight Into Eternity -
More Hands - to hold - These are but Two - One more new-mailed Nerve Just granted, for the Peril's sake - Some striding - Giant - Love -
So greater than the Gods can show, They slink before the Clay, That not for all their Heaven can boast Will let it's Keepsake - go.
The lonesome for they know not What - The Eastern Exiles - be - Who strayed beyond the Amber line Some madder Holiday - And ever since - the purple Moat They strive to climb - in vain - As Birds - that tumble from the clouds Do fumble at the strain -
The Blessed Ether - taught them - Some Transatlantic Morn - When Heaven - was too common - to miss - Too sure - to dote upon!
Put up my lute! What of - my Music! Since the sole ear I cared to charm - Passive - as Granite - laps My Music - Sobbing - will suit - as well as psalm! Would but the "Memnon" of the Desert - Teach me the strain That vanquished Him - When He - surrendered to the Sunrise - Maybe - that - would awaken - them!
Read - Sweet - how others - strove - Till we - are stouter - What they - renounced - Till we - are less afraid - How many times they - bore the faithful witness - Till we - are helped - As if a Kingdom - cared! Read then - of faith - That shone above the fagot - Clear strains of Hymn The River could not drown - Brave names of Men - And Celestial Women - Passed out - of Record Into - Renown!
Good Night! Which put the Candle out? A jealous Zephyr - not a doubt - Ah, friend, you little knew How long at that celestial wick The Angels - labored diligent - Extinguished - now - for you! It might - have been the Light House spark - Some Sailor - rowing in the Dark - Had importuned to see! It might - have been the waning lamp That lit the Drummer from the Camp To purer Reveille!
There's a certain Slant of light, Winter Afternoons - That oppresses, like the Heft Of Cathedral Tunes - Heavenly Hurt, it gives us - We can find no scar, But internal difference, Where the Meanings, are -
None may teach it - Any - 'Tis the Seal Despair - An imperial affliction Sent us of the Air -
When it comes, the Landscape listens - Shadows - hold their breath - When it goes, 'tis like the Distance On the look of Death.
Delight is as the flight - Or in the Ratio of it, As the Schools would say - The Rainbow's way - A Skein Flung colored, after Rain, Would suit as bright, Except that flight Were Aliment - "If it would last" I asked the East, When that Bent Stripe Struck up my childish Firmament - And I, for glee, Took Rainbows, as the common way, And empty Skies The Eccentricity -
And so with Lives - And so with Butterflies - Seen magic - through the fright That they will cheat the sight - And Dower latitudes far on - Some sudden morn - Our portion - in the fashion - Done.
If I'm lost - now - That I was found - Shall still my transport be - That once - on me - those Jasper Gates Blazed open - suddenly - That in my awkward - gazing - face - The Angels - softly peered - And touched me with their fleeces, Almost as if they cared - I'm banished - now - you know it - How foreign that can be - You'll know - Sir - when the Savior's face Turns so - away from you.
To die - takes just a little while - They say it doesn't hurt - It's only fainter - by degrees - And then - it's out of sight - A darker Ribbon - for a Day - A Crape upon the Hat - And then the pretty sunshine comes - And helps us to forget -
The absent - mystic - creature - That but for love of us - Had gone to sleep - that soundest time - Without the weariness.