A Saucer holds a Cup
In sordid human Life
But in a Squirrel's estimate
A Saucer holds a Loaf -
A Table of a Tree
Demands the little King
And every Breeze that run along
His Dining Room do swing -
His Cutlery - he keeps
Within his Russet Lips -
To see it flashing when he dines
Do Birmingham eclipse -
Convicted - could we be
Of our Minutiae
The smallest Citizen that flies
Is heartier than we.
Witchcraft has not a pedigree
'Tis early as our Breath
And mourners meet it going out
The moment of our death.
Behold this little Bane -
The Boon of all alive -
As common as it is unknown
The name of it is Love -
To lack of it is Woe -
To own of it is Wound -
Not elsewhere - if in Paradise
It's Tantamount be found.
With Pinions of Disdain
The soul can farther fly
Than any feather specified
in - Ornithology -
It wafts this sordid Flesh
Beyond it's dull - control
And during it's electric gale -
The body is - a soul -
instructing by itself -
How little work it be -
To put off filaments like this
for immortality.
I never saw a Moor -
I never saw the Sea -
Yet know I how the Heather looks
And what a Billow be -
I never spoke with God
Nor visited in Heaven -
Yet certain am I of the spot
As if the Checks were given.
Endow the Living - with the Tears -
You squander on the Dead,
And They were Men and Women - now,
Around Your Fireside -
Instead of Passive Creatures,
Denied the Cherishing
Till They - the Cherishing deny -
With Death's Etherial Scorn.
We do not play on Graves -
Because there is'nt Room -
Besides - it isn't even - it slants
And People come -
And put a Flower on it -
And hang their faces so -
We're fearing that their Hearts will drop -
And crush our pretty play -
And so we move as far
As Enemies - away -
Just looking round to see how far
It is - Occasionally.
Tie the Strings to my Life, My Lord,
Then, I am ready to go!
Just a look at the Horses -
Rapid! That will do!
Put me in on the firmest side -
So I shall never fall -
For we must ride to the Judgment -
And it's partly, down Hill -
But never I mind the steepest -
And never I mind the Sea -
Held fast in Everlasting Race -
By my own Choice, and Thee -
Goodbye to the Life I used to live -
And the World I used to know -
And kiss the Hills, for me, just once -
Now - I am ready to go!
I know lives, I could miss
Without a Misery -
Others - whose instant's wanting -
Would be Eternity -
The last - a scanty Number -
'Twould scarcely fill a Two -
The first - a Gnat's Horizon
Could easily outgrow.
The Brain - is wider than the Sky -
For - put them side by side -
The one the other will contain
With ease - and You - beside -
The Brain is deeper than the sea -
For - hold them - Blue to Blue -
The one the other will absorb -
As Sponges - Buckets - do -
The Brain is just the weight of God -
For - Heft them - Pound for Pound -
And they will differ - if they do -
As Syllable from Sound.