Oh! How sad and little known
Is deafness –
When you hear the Word – but lose the comma
And iota . . .
*
The angel calls . . . but they’ll just say:
“Ah, thunder!”
So you slide a coffin lid over your face
Under a boulder.
*
You don’t want to exclaim: “Eli . . . Eli . . .” – why?
O God! . . .
The sails yield to the northern wind,
The sea seethes.
*
In my ears a roar (not theory – don’t I know
A storm?),
So I dream and sense that history’s tome
Turns marble-hard . . .
December 26 (27?), 1860