Tho' I get home how late - how late - So I get home - 'twill compensate - Better will be the Extasy That they have done expecting me - When Night - descending - dumb - and dark - They hear my unexpected knock - Transporting must the moment be - Brewed from decades of Agony! To think just how the fire will burn - Just how long-cheated eyes will turn - To wonder what myself will say, And what itself, will say to me - Beguiles the Centuries of way!
I should not dare to leave my friend, Because - because if he should die While I was gone - and I - too late - Should reach the Heart that wanted me - If I should disappoint the eyes That hunted - hunted so - to see - And could not bear to shut until They "noticed" me - they noticed me -
If I should stab the patient faith So sure I'd come - so sure I'd come - It listening - listening - went to sleep - Telling my tardy name -
My Heart would wish it broke before - Since breaking then - since breaking then - Were useless as next morning's sun - Where midnight frosts - had lain.
The Flower must not blame the Bee - That seeketh his felicity Too often at her door - But teach the Footman from Vevay - Mistress is "not at home" - to say - To people - any more!
A slash of Blue - A sweep of Gray - Some scarlet patches on the way, Compose an Evening Sky - A little purple - slipped between - Some Ruby Trowsers hurried on - A Wave of Gold - A Bank of Day - This just makes out the Morning Sky.
He forgot - and I - remembered - 'Twas an everyday affair - Long ago as Christ and Peter - "Warmed them" at the "Temple fire". "Thou wert with him" - quoth "the Damsel"? "No" - said Peter, 'twas'nt me - Jesus merely "looked" at Peter - Could I do aught else - to Thee?
Two swimmers wrestled on the spar - Until the morning sun - When One - turned smiling to the land - Oh God! The Other One! The stray ships - passing - Spied a face - Upon the waters borne - With eyes in death - still begging raised - And hands - beseeching - thrown!
Unit, like Death, for Whom? True, like the Tomb, Who tells no secret Told to Him - The Grave is strict - Tickets admit Just two - the Bearer - And the Borne - And seat - just One - The Living - tell - The Dying - but a Syllable - The Coy Dead - None - No Chatter - here - no tea - So Babbler, and Bohea - stay there - But Gravity - and Expectation - and Fear - A tremor just, that All's not sure.
Some - Work for Immortality - The Chiefer part, for Time - He - Compensates - immediately - The former - Checks - on Fame - Slow Gold - but Everlasting - The Bullion of Today - Contrasted with the Currency Of Immortality -
A Beggar - Here and There - Is gifted to discern Beyond the Broker's insight - One's - Money - One's - the Mine.
It might be lonelier Without the Loneliness - I'm so accustomed to my Fate - Perhaps the Other - Peace - Would interrupt the Dark - And crowd the little Room - Too scant - by Cubits - to contain The Sacrament - of Him -
I am not used to Hope - It might intrude upon - It's sweet parade - blaspheme the place - Ordained to Suffering -
It might be easier To fail - with Land in Sight - Than gain - My Blue Peninsula - To perish - of Delight.