Dictionary Poems

Before you thought of spring,Except as a surmise,You see, God bless his suddenness,A fellow in the skiesOf independent hues,A little weather-worn,Inspiriting habilimentsOf indigo and brown. With specimens of song,As if for you to choose,Discretion in the interval,With gay delays he goesTo some superior treeWithout a single leaf,And shouts for joy to nobodyBut his seraphic self! … Continued

Some rainbow coming from the fair!Some vision of the world CashmereI confidently see!Or else a peacock’s purple train,Feather by feather, on the plainFritters itself away! The dreamy butterflies bestir,Lethargic pools resume the whirOf last year’s sundered tune.From some old fortress on the sunBaronial bees march, one by one,In murmuring platoon! The robins stand as thick … Continued

I envy not in any moodsThe captive void of noble rage,The linnet born within the cage,That never knew the summer woods: I envy not the beast that takesHis license in the field of time,Unfetter’d by the sense of crime,To whom a conscience never wakes; Nor, what may count itself as blest,The heart that never plighted … Continued

His frown brought terror to his foes, But now in twilight of his daysThe pure perfection of a rose Can kindle rapture in his gaze.Where once he swung the sword of wrath And peoples trembled at his word,With hoe he trims a pansied path And listens to a bird. His large of life was lived … Continued

I have a house I’ve lived in long:I can’t recall my going in.‘Twere better bartered for a songEre ruin, rot and rust begin.When it was fresh and fine and fair,I used it with neglect, I fear;But now I husband it with careAnd cherish it from year to year. Oh do not put it to the … Continued

THE Duties of the Wind are few–To cast the Ships at sea,Establish March,The Floods escort,And usher Liberty. – THE Duties of the Wind are few by Emily Dickinson

If I can stop one heart from breaking,I shall not live in vain;If I can ease one life the aching,Or cool one pain,Or help one fainting robinUnto his nest again,I shall not live in vain. – If I can stop one heart from breaking by Emily Dickinson

OVER the dead line we have called to youTo come across with a word to us,Some beaten whisper of what happensWhere you are over the dead lineDeaf to our calls and voiceless. The flickering shadows have not answeredNor your lips sent a signalWhether love talks and roses growAnd the sun breaks at morningSplattering the sea … Continued

THERE are no handles upon a languageWhereby men take hold of itAnd mark it with signs for its remembrance.It is a river, this language,Once in a thousand yearsBreaking a new courseChanging its way to the ocean.It is mountain effluviaMoving to valleysAnd from nation to nationCrossing borders and mixing.Languages die like rivers.Words wrapped round your tongue … Continued

You tides with ceaseless swell! you power that does this work!You unseen force, centripetal, centrifugal, through space’s spread,Rapport of sun, moon, earth, and all the constellations,What are the messages by you from distant stars to us? what Sirius’? what Capella’s?What central heart–and you the pulse–vivifies all? what boundless aggregate of all?What subtle indirection and significance … Continued