* * *

Ah strange strange strange

The Dualism of man –

That he can enlist

But half his being in his act.

* * *

See yonder leafless trees against the sky,

How they diffuse themselves into the air,

And ever subdividing separate,

Limbs into branches, branches into twigs,

As if they loved the element, & hasted

To dissipate their being into it.

* * *

Do that which you can do

The world will feel its need of you.

* * *

Few are free

All might be

’T is the height

Of the soul’s flight

* * *

Van Buren

The towers that generations did combine

To build & grace, a rat may undermine.

* * *

The Future

How many big events to shake the earth,

Lie packed in silence waiting for their birth.

* * *

Rex

The bard & mystic held me for their own

I filled the dream of sad poetic maids

I took the friendly noble by the hand

I was the trustee of the handcartman

The brother of the fisher, porter, swain, –

And these from the crowd’s edge well pleased beheld

The honor done to me as done to them.

* * *

And when I am entombed in my place,

Be it remembered of a single man,

He never, though he dearly loved his race,

For fear of human eyes, swerved from his plan.

* * *

Bard or dunce is blest, but hard

Is it to be half a bard.

* * *

It takes philosopher or fool

To build a fire or keep a school.

* * *

Tell men what they knew before

Paint the prospect from their door.

* * *

I use the knife

To save the life.

* * *

There is no evil but can speak,

If the wheel want oil ’t will creak.

* * *

The sea reflects the rosy sky,

The sky doth marry the blue main.

* * *

In this sour world, O summerwind

Who taught thee sweet to blow

Who should not love me, summerwind,

If thou canst flatter so

* * *

Look danger in the eye it vanishes

Anatomize that roaring populace

Big dire & overwhelming as they seem

Piecemeal ’t is nothing. Some of them scream

Fearing the others some are lookers on

One of them hectic day by day consumes

And one will die tomorrow of the flux

One of them has already changed his mind

And falls out with the ringleader and one

Has seen his creditor amidst the crowd

And flees. And there are heavy eyes

That miss their sleep & meditate retreat.

A few malignant heads keep up the din

The rest are idle boys.

* * *

As I walked in the wood

The silence into music broke

Sang the thrush in the dark oak

I unwilling to intrude

Slink into nigh solitude

Till warned by a scout of a jay

That flying courier so gay

That he sees me if I see not him