Contents
introduction xxvii
poems.
1890.
prelude
book i.
life.
success 
“our share of the night to bear. . .” 
rouge et noir 
rouge gagne 
“glee! the great storm is over. . .” 
“if i can stop one heart from
breaking. . .” 
almost! 
“a wounded dear leaps highest. . .” 
“the heart asks pleasure first. . .” 
in a library 
“much madness is divinest sense. . .” 
“i asked no other thing. . .” 
exclusion 
the secret 
the lonely house 
“to fight aloud is very brave. . .” 
dawn 
the book of martyrs 
the mystery of pain 
“i taste a liquor never brewed. . .” 
a book 
“i had no time to hate, because. . .” 
unreturning 
“whether my bark went down at sea. . .” 
“belshazzar had a letter. . .” 
“the brain within its groove. . .” 
book ii.
love.
mine 
bequest 
“alter? when the hills do. . .” 
suspense 
surrender 
“if you were coming in the fall. . .” 
with a flower
proof 
“have you got a brook in your
little heart?” 
transplanted 
the outlet 
in vain 
renunciation 
love’s baptism 
resurrection 
apocalypse 
the wife 
apotheosis 
book iii.
nature.
“new feet within my garden go. . .” 
may-flower 
why? 
“perhaps you’d like to buy a flower. . .” 
“the pedigree of honey. . .” 
a service of song 
“the bee is not afraid of me. . .” 
summer’s armies 
the grass 
“a little road not made of man. . .” 
summer shower 
psalm of the day 
the sea of sunset 
purple clover 
the bee 
“presentiment is that long shadow on
the lawn. . .” 
“as children bid the guest good-night. . .” 
“angels in the early morning. . .” 
“so bashful when i spied her. . .” 
two worlds 
the mountain 
a day 
“the butterfly’s assumption-gown. . .” 
the wind 
death and life 
“’twas later when the summer went. . .” 
indian summer 
autumn 
beclouded 
the hemlock 
“there’s a certain slant of light. . .” 
book iv.
time and eternity.
“one dignity delays for all. . .” 
too late
astra castra 
“safe in their alabaster chambers. . .” 
“on this long storm the
rainbow rose. . .” 
from the chrysalis 
setting sail 
“look back on time with kindly eyes. . .” 
“a train went through a burial gate. . .” 
“i died for beauty, but was scarce. . .” 
troubled about many things 
real 
the funeral 
“i went to thank her. . .” 
“i’ve seen a dying eye. . .” 
refuge 
“i never saw a moor. . .” 
playmates 
“to know just how he suffered would
be dear. . .” 
“the last night that she lived. . .” 
the first lesson 
“the bustle in a house. . .”
“i reason, earth is short. . .” 
“afraid? of whom am i afraid?” 
dying 
“two swimmers wrestled on the spar. . .” 
the chariot 
“she went as quiet as the dew. . .” 
resurgam 
“except to heaven she is nought. . .” 
“death is a dialogue between. . .” 
“it was too late for man. . .” 
along the potomac 
“the daisy follows soft the sun. . .” 
emancipation 
lost 
“if i shouldn’t be alive. . .” 
“sleep is supposed to be. . .” 
“i shall know why when time is over. . .” 
“i never lost as much but twice. . .” 
poems.
1891.
“my nosegays are for captives. . .” 
book i.
life.
“i’m nobody! who are you?” 
“i bring an unaccustomed wine. . .” 
“the nearest dream recedes,
unrealized. . .” 
“we play at paste. . .”
“i found the phrase to every thought. . .” 
hope 
the white heat 
triumph 
the test 
escape 
compensation 
the martyrs 
a prayer 
“the thought beneath so slight a film. . .” 
“the soul unto itself. . .” 
“surgeons must be very careful. . .” 
the railway train 
the show 
“delight becomes pictorial. . .” 
“a thought went up my mind today. . .” 
“is heaven a physician?” 
the return 
“a poor torn heart, a tattered heart. . .” 
too much 
shipwreck 
“victory comes late. . .” 
enough 
“experiment to me. . .” 
my country’s wardrobe
“faith is fine invention. . .” 
“except the heaven had come so near. . .” 
“portraits are to daily faces. . .” 
the duel 
“a shady friend for torrid days. . .” 
the goal 
sight 
“talk with prudence to a beggar. . .” 
the preacher
“good night! which put the candle out?” 
“when i hoped i feared. . .” 
deed 
time’s lesson 
remorse 
the shelter 
“undue significance a starving
man attaches. . .” 
“heart not so heavy as mine. . .” 
“i many times thought peace had come. . .” 
“unto my books so good to turn. . .” 
“this merit hath the worst. . .” 
hunger 
“i gained it so. . .”
“to learn the transport by the pain. . .” 
returning 
prayer 
“i know that he exists. . .” 
melodies unheard 
called back 
book ii.
love.
choice 
“i have no life but this. . .” 
“your riches taught me poverty. . .” 
the contract 
the letter 
“the way i read a letter’s this. . .” 
“wild nights! wild nights!” 
at home 89
possession 
“a charm invests a face. . .” 
the lovers 
“in lands i never saw, they say. . .” 
“the moon is distant from the sea. . .” 
“he put the belt around my life. . .” 
the lost jewel 
“what if i say i shall not wait?” 
book iii.
nature.
mother nature 
out of the morning 
“at half-past three a single bird. . .” 
day’s parlor 
the sun’s wooing 
the robin 
the butterfly’s day 
the bluebird 
april 
the sleeping flowers 
my rose 
the oriole’s secret 
the oriole 
in shadow 
the humming-bird 
secrets 
“who robbed the woods. . .” 
two voyagers 
by the sea 
old-fashioned 
a tempest 
the sea
in the garden 
the snake 
the mushroom 
the storm 
the spider 
“i know a place where summer strives. . .” 
“the one that could repeat the
summer day. . .” 
the wind’s visit 
“nature, rarer uses yellow. . .” 
gossip 
simplicity 
storm 
the rat 
“frequently the woods are pink. . .” 
a thunder-storm 
with flowers 
sunset 
“she sweeps with many-colored brooms. . .” 
“like mighty footlights burned the red. . .” 
problems 
the juggler of day 
my cricket 
“as imperceptibly as grief. . .” 
“it can’t be summer,—that got through. . .” 
summer’s obsequies 
fringed gentian 
november 
the snow 
the bluejay 
book iv.
time and eternity.
“let down the bars, o death!” 
“going to heaven!” 
“at least to pray is left, is left. . .” 
epitaph 
“morns like these we parted. . .” 
“a death-blow is a life-blow to some. . .” 
“i read my sentence steadily. . .” 
“i have not told my garden yet. . .” 
the battle-field 
“the only ghost i ever saw. . .” 
“some, too fragile for winter winds. . .” 
“as by the dead we love to sit. . .” 
memorials 
“i went to heaven. . .” 
“their height in heaven comforts not. . .” 
“there is a shame of nobleness. . .” 
triumph 
“pompless no life can pass away. . .” 
“i noticed people disappeared. . .” 
following 
“if anybody’s friend be dead. . .” 
the journey 
a country burial 
going 
“essential oils are wrung. . .” 
“i lived on dread; to those who know. . .” 
“if i should die. . .” 
at length 
ghosts 
vanished 
precedence 
gone 
requiem 
“what inn is this. . .” 
“it was not death, for i stood up. . .” 
till the end 
void 
“a throe upon the features. . .” 
saved! 
“i think just how my shape will rise. . .” 
the forgotten grave 
“lay this laurel on the one. . .” 
poems.
1896.
“’tis all i have to bring today. . .” 
book i.
life.
real riches 
superiority to fate 
hope 
forbidden fruit (i) 
forbidden fruit (ii) 
a word 
“to venerate the simple days. . .” 
life’s trades 
“drowning is not so pitiful. . .” 
“how still the bells in steeples stand. . .” 
“if the foolish call them ‘flowers’. . .” 
a syllable 
parting 
aspiration 
the inevitable 
a book 
“who has not found the heaven below. . .” 
a portrait 
i had a guinea golden 
saturday afternoon 
“few get enough,—enough is one. . .” 
“upon the gallows hung a wretch. . .” 
the lost thought 
reticence 
with flowers 
“the farthest thunder that i heard. . .” 
“on the bleakness of my lot. . .” 
contrast 
friends 
fire 
a man 
ventures 
griefs 
“i have a king who does not speak. . .” 
disenchantment 
lost faith 
lost joy 
“i worked for chaff, and earning wheat. . .” 
“life, and death, and giants. . .” 
alpine glow 
remembrance 
“to hang our head ostensibly. . .” 
the brain 
“the bone that has no marrow. . .” 
the past 
“to help our bleaker parts. . .” 
“what soft, cherubic creatures. . .” 
desire 
philosophy 
power 
“a modest lot, a fame petite. . .” 
“in bliss, then, such abyss. . .” 
experience 
thanksgiving day 
childish griefs 
book ii.
love.
consecration 
love’s humility 
love 
satisfied 
with a flower 
song 
loyalty 
“to lose thee, sweeter than to gain. . .” 
“poor little heart!” 
forgotten 
“i’ve got an arrow here. . .” 
the master 
“heart, we will forget him!” 
“father, i bring thee not myself. . .” 
“we outgrow love like other things. . .” 
“not with a club the heart is broken. . .” 
who? 
“he touched me, so i live to know. . .” 
dreams 
numen lumen 
longing 
wedded 
book iii.
nature.
nature’s changes 
the tulip 
“a light exists in spring. . .” 
the waking year 
to march 
march 
dawn 
“a murmur in the trees to note. . .” 
“morning is the place for dew. . .” 
“to my quick ear the leaves conferred. . .” 
a rose 
“high from the earth i heard a bird. . .” 
cobwebs 
a well 
“to make a prairie it takes a clover. . .” 
the wind 
“a dew sufficed itself. . .” 
the woodpecker 
a snake 
“could i but ride indefinite. . .” 
the moon 
the bat 
the balloon 
evening 
cocoon 
sunset 
aurora 
the coming of night 
aftermath 
book iv.
time and eternity.
“this world is not conclusion. . .” 
“we learn in the retreating. . .” 
“they say that ‘time assuages’. . .” 
“we cover thee, sweet face. . .” 
“that is solemn we have ended. . .” 
“the stimulus, beyond the grave. . .” 
“given in marriage unto thee. . .” 
“that such have died enables us. . .” 
“they won’t frown always,—some
sweet day. . .” 
immortality 
“the distance that the dead have gone. . .” 
“how dare the robins sing. . .” 
death 
unwarned 
“each that we lose takes part of us. . .” 
“not any higher stands the grave. . .” 
asleep 
the spirit 
the monument 
“bless god, he went as soldiers. . .” 
“immortal is an ample word. . .” 
“where every bird is bold to go. . .” 
“the grave my little cottage is. . .” 
“this was in the white of the year. . .” 
“sweet hours have perished here. . .” 
“me! come! my dazzled face. . .” 
invisible 
“i wish i knew that woman’s name. . .” 
trying to forget 
“i felt a funeral in my brain. . .” 
“i meant to find her when i came. . .” 
waiting 
“a sickness of this world it most
occasions. . .” 
“superfluous were the sun. . .” 
“so proud she was to die. . .” 
farewell 
“the dying need but little, dear. . .” 
dead 
“the soul should always stand ajar. . .” 
“three weeks passed since i had
seen her. . . 
“i breathed enough to learn
the trick. . .” 
“i wonder if the sepulchre. . .” 
joy in death 
“if i may have it when it’s dead. . .” 
“before the ice is in the pools. . .” 
dying 
“adrift! a little boat adrift!” 
“there’s been a death in the opposite
house. . .” 
“we never know we go,—when we are
going. . .” 
the soul’s storm 
“water is taught by thirst. . .” 
thirst 
“a clock stopped—not the mantel’s. . .” 
charlotte brontë’s grave 
“a toad can die of light. . .” 
“far from love the heavenly father. . .” 
sleeping 
retrospect 
eternity