In cups of artificial drowse
  To sleep its shape away, —­
The grave was finished, but the spade
  Remained in memory.

XXX.

I felt a funeral in my brain,
  And mourners, to and fro,
Kept treading, treading, till it seemed
  That sense was breaking through.

And when they all were seated,
  A service like a drum
Kept beating, beating, till I thought
  My mind was going numb.

And then I heard them lift a box,
  And creak across my soul
With those same boots of lead, again. 
  Then space began to toll

As all the heavens were a bell,
  And Being but an ear,
And I and silence some strange race,
  Wrecked, solitary, here.

XXXI.

I meant to find her when I came;
  Death had the same design;
But the success was his, it seems,
  And the discomfit mine.

I meant to tell her how I longed
  For just this single time;
But Death had told her so the first,
  And she had hearkened him.

To wander now is my abode;
  To rest, —­ to rest would be
A privilege of hurricane
  To memory and me.

XXXII.

Waiting.

I sing to use the waiting,
  My bonnet but to tie,
And shut the door unto my house;
  No more to do have I,

Till, his best step approaching,
  We journey to the day,
And tell each other how we sang
  To keep the dark away.

XXXIII.

A sickness of this world it most occasions
  When best men die;
A wishfulness their far condition
  To occupy.

A chief indifference, as foreign
  A world must be
Themselves forsake contented,
  For Deity.

XXXIV.

Superfluous were the sun
  When excellence is dead;
He were superfluous every day,
  For every day is said

That syllable whose faith
  Just saves it from despair,
And whose ‘I’ll meet you’ hesitates
  If love inquire, ‘Where?’

Upon his dateless fame
  Our periods may lie,
As stars that drop anonymous
  From an abundant sky.

XXXV.

So proud she was to die
  It made us all ashamed
That what we cherished, so unknown
  To her desire seemed.

So satisfied to go
  Where none of us should be,
Immediately, that anguish stooped
  Almost to jealousy.

XXXVI.

Farewell.

Tie the strings to my life, my Lord,
  Then I am ready to go! 
Just a look at the horses —­
  Rapid!  That will do!