10 December 1830 – 15 May 1886 / Amherst / Massachusetts
As If I Asked A Common Alms
323
As if I asked a common Alms,
And in my wondering hand
A Stranger pressed a Kingdom,
And I, bewildered, stand—
As if I asked the Orient
Had it for me a Morn—
And it should lift its purple Dikes,
And shatter me with Dawn!