AS IF A PHANTOM CARESS'D ME

As if a phantom caress'd me,
I thought I was not alone walking here by the shore;
But the one I thought was with me as now I walk by the
    shore, the one I loved that caress'd me,
As I lean and look through the glimmering light, that one has
    utterly disappear'd,
And those appear that are hateful to me and mock me.

1860 1867

ASSURANCES

I need no assurances, I am a man who is pre-occupied of his
    own soul;
I do not doubt that from under the feet and beside the hands
    and face I am cognizant of, are now looking faces I am
    not cognizant of, calm and actual faces,
I do not doubt but the majesty and beauty of the world are
    latent in any iota of the world,
I do not doubt I am limitless, and that the universes are
    limitless, in vain I try to think how limitless,
I do not doubt that the orbs and the systems of orbs play
    their swift sports through the air on purpose, and that I
    shall one day be eligible to do as much as they, and more
    than they,
I do not doubt that temporary affairs keep on and on millions
    of years,
I do not doubt interiors have their interiors, and exteriors
    have their exteriors, and that the eyesight has another
    eyesight, and the hearing another hearing, and the voice
    another voice,
I do not doubt that the passionately-wept deaths of young
    men are provided for, and that the deaths of young
    women and the deaths of little children are provided for,
(Did you think Life was so well provided for, and Death, the
    purport of all Life, is not well provided for?)
I do not doubt that wrecks at sea, no matter what the horrors
    of them, no matter whose wife, child, husband, father,
    lover, has gone down, are provided for, to the minutest
    points,
I do not doubt that whatever can possibly happen anywhere
    at any time, is provided for in the inherences of things,
I do not think Life provides for all and for Time and Space,
    but I believe Heavenly Death provides for all.

1856 1871

QUICKSAND YEARS

Quicksand years that whirl me I know not whither,
Your schemes, politics, fail, lines give way, substances mock
    and elude me,

Only the theme I sing, the great and strong-possess'd soul,
    eludes not,
One's-self must never give way — that is the final substance —
    that out of all is sure,
Out of politics, triumphs, battles, life, what at last finally
    remains?
When shows break up what but One's-Self is sure?

(1861-2) 1867

THAT MUSIC ALWAYS ROUND ME

That music always round me, unceasing, unbeginning, yet long
    untaught I did not hear,
But now the chorus I hear and am elated,
A tenor, strong, ascending with power and health, with glad
    notes of daybreak I hear,
A soprano at intervals sailing buoyantly over the tops of
    immense waves,
A transparent base shuddering lusciously under and through
    the universe,
The triumphant tutti, the funeral wailings with sweet flutes
    and violins, all these I fill myself with,
I hear not the volumes of sound merely, I am moved by the
    exquisite meanings,
I listen to the different voices winding in and out, striving,
    contending with fiery vehemence to excel each other in
    emotion;
I do not think the performers know themselves — but now I
    think I begin to know them.

1860 1867

WHAT SHIP PUZZLED AT SEA

What ship puzzled at sea, cons for the true reckoning?
Or coming in, to avoid the bars and follow the channel a
    perfect pilot needs?
Here, sailor! here, ship! take aboard the most perfect pilot,
Whom, in a little boat, putting off and rowing, I hailing you
    offer.

1860 1881