Then, if it have burrowed
  Out of reach of skill,
Ring the tree and leave it, —­
  ’T is the vermin’s will.

XIV.

UNWARNED.

’T is sunrise, little maid, hast thou
  No station in the day? 
’T was not thy wont to hinder so, —­
  Retrieve thine industry.

’T is noon, my little maid, alas! 
  And art thou sleeping yet? 
The lily waiting to be wed,
  The bee, dost thou forget?

My little maid, ’t is night; alas,
  That night should be to thee
Instead of morning!  Hadst thou broached
  Thy little plan to me,
Dissuade thee if I could not, sweet,
  I might have aided thee.

XV.

Each that we lose takes part of us;
  A crescent still abides,
Which like the moon, some turbid night,
  Is summoned by the tides.

XVI.

Not any higher stands the grave
  For heroes than for men;
Not any nearer for the child
  Than numb three-score and ten.

This latest leisure equal lulls
  The beggar and his queen;
Propitiate this democrat
  By summer’s gracious mien.

XVII.

Asleep.

As far from pity as complaint,
  As cool to speech as stone,
As numb to revelation
  As if my trade were bone.

As far from time as history,
  As near yourself to-day
As children to the rainbow’s scarf,
  Or sunset’s yellow play

To eyelids in the sepulchre. 
  How still the dancer lies,
While color’s revelations break,
  And blaze the butterflies!

XVIII.

The spirit.

’T is whiter than an Indian pipe,
  ’T is dimmer than a lace;
No stature has it, like a fog,
  When you approach the place.

Not any voice denotes it here,
  Or intimates it there;
A spirit, how doth it accost? 
  What customs hath the air?

This limitless hyperbole
  Each one of us shall be;
’T is drama, if (hypothesis)
  It be not tragedy!

XIX.

The Monument.

She laid her docile crescent down,
  And this mechanic stone
Still states, to dates that have forgot,
  The news that she is gone.

So constant to its stolid trust,
  The shaft that never knew,
It shames the constancy that fled
  Before its emblem flew.

XX.

Bless God, he went as soldiers,
  His musket on his breast;
Grant, God, he charge the bravest
  Of all the martial blest.

Please God, might I behold him
  In epauletted white,
I should not fear the foe then,
  I should not fear the fight.