XVIII.
THE SHOW
The show is not the show,
 But they that go.
 Menagerie to me
 My neighbor be.
 Fair play 
 Both went to see.
XIX
Delight becomes pictorial
 When viewed through pain, 
 More fair, because impossible
 That any gain.
The mountain at a given distance
 In amber lies;
 Approached, the amber flits a little, 
 And that 's the skies!
XX
A thought went up my mind to-day
 That I have had before,
 But did not finish, some way back,
 I could not fix the year,
Nor where it went, nor why it came
 The second time to me,
 Nor definitely what it was,
 Have I the art to say.
But somewhere in my soul, I know
 I 've met the thing before;
 It just reminded me 't was all 
 And came my way no more.
XXI
Is Heaven a physician?
    They say that He can heal;
 But medicine posthumous
    Is unavailable.
Is Heaven an exchequer?
    They speak of what we owe;
 But that negotiation
    I 'm not a party to.
XXII.
THE RETURN
Though I get home how late, how late!
 So I get home, 't will compensate.
 Better will be the ecstasy
 That they have done expecting me,
 When, night descending, dumb and dark,
 They hear my unexpected knock.
 Transporting must the moment be,
 Brewed from decades of agony!
To think just how the fire will burn,
 Just how long-cheated eyes will turn
 To wonder what myself will say,
 And what itself will say to me,
 Beguiles the centuries of way!
XXIII
A poor torn heart, a tattered heart,
 That sat it down to rest,
 Nor noticed that the ebbing day
 Flowed silver to the west,
 Nor noticed night did soft descend
 Nor constellation burn,
 Intent upon the vision
 Of latitudes unknown.
The angels, happening that way,
 This dusty heart espied;
 Tenderly took it up from toil
 And carried it to God.
 There, sandals for the barefoot;
 There, gathered from the gales,
 Do the blue havens by the hand
 Lead the wandering sails.
XXIV.
TOO MUCH
I should have been too glad, I see,
 Too lifted for the scant degree
    Of life's penurious round;
 My little circuit would have shamed
 This new circumference, have blamed
    The homelier time behind.
I should have been too saved, I see,
 Too rescued; fear too dim to me
    That I could spell the prayer
 I knew so perfect yesterday, 
 That scalding one, "Sabachthani,"
    Recited fluent here.
Earth would have been too much, I see,
 And heaven not enough for me;
    I should have had the joy
 Without the fear to justify, 
 The palm without the Calvary;
    So, Saviour, crucify.
Defeat whets victory, they say;
 The reefs in old Gethsemane
    Endear the shore beyond.
 'T is beggars banquets best define;
 'T is thirsting vitalizes wine, 
    Faith faints to understand.
XXV.
SHIPWRECK
It tossed and tossed, 
 A little brig I knew, 
 O'ertook by blast,
 It spun and spun,
 And groped delirious, for morn.
It slipped and slipped,
 As one that drunken stepped;
 Its white foot tripped,
 Then dropped from sight.
Ah, brig, good-night
 To crew and you;
 The ocean's heart too smooth, too blue,
 To break for you.
XXVI
Victory comes late,
 And is held low to freezing lips
 Too rapt with frost
 To take it.
 How sweet it would have tasted,
 Just a drop!
 Was God so economical?
 His table 's spread too high for us
 Unless we dine on tip-toe.
 Crumbs fit such little mouths,
 Cherries suit robins;
 The eagle's golden breakfast
 Strangles them.
 God keeps his oath to sparrows,
 Who of little love
 Know how to starve!
XXVII.
ENOUGH
God gave a loaf to every bird,
 But just a crumb to me;
 I dare not eat it, though I starve, 
 My poignant luxury
 To own it, touch it, prove the feat
 That made the pellet mine, 
 Too happy in my sparrow chance
 For ampler coveting.
It might be famine all around,
 I could not miss an ear,
 Such plenty smiles upon my board,
 My garner shows so fair.
 I wonder how the rich may feel, 
 An Indiaman an Earl?
 I deem that I with but a crumb
 Am sovereign of them all.
XXVIII
Experiment to me
 Is every one I meet.
 If it contain a kernel?
 The figure of a nut
Presents upon a tree,
 Equally plausibly;
 But meat within is requisite,
 To squirrels and to me.
XXIX.
MY COUNTRY'S WARDROBE
My country need not change her gown,
 Her triple suit as sweet
 As when 't was cut at Lexington,
 And first pronounced "a fit."
Great Britain disapproves "the stars;"
 Disparagement discreet, 
 There 's something in their attitude
 That taunts her bayonet.
XXX
Faith is a fine invention
 For gentlemen who see;
 But microscopes are prudent
 In an emergency!
XXXI
Except the heaven had come so near,
 So seemed to choose my door,
 The distance would not haunt me so;
 I had not hoped before.
But just to hear the grace depart
 I never thought to see,
 Afflicts me with a double loss;
 'T is lost, and lost to me.
XXXII
Portraits are to daily faces
 As an evening west
 To a fine, pedantic sunshine
 In a satin vest.
XXXIII.
THE DUEL
I took my power in my hand.
 And went against the world;
 'T was not so much as David had,
 But I was twice as bold.
I aimed my pebble, but myself
 Was all the one that fell.
 Was it Goliath was too large,
 Or only I too small?
XXXIV
A shady friend for torrid days
 Is easier to find
 Than one of higher temperature
 For frigid hour of mind.
The vane a little to the east
 Scares muslin souls away;
 If broadcloth breasts are firmer
 Than those of organdy,
Who is to blame? The weaver?
 Ah! the bewildering thread!
 The tapestries of paradise
 So notelessly are made!