University of Virginia Library


65

STARS OF THE GRASSES.

Fireflies! fireflies! fragments of light,
Leading through darkness the careless sight—
Tremulous stars of the lower night;
Living lamps in the green below,
Clinging and swinging to and fro,
Where the forests of grasses grow;
How can we say but yonder star,
Glittering in the blue afar,
May be conscious, as insects are?
Greater and stronger, but still as you,
Oft it will vanish from our view,
Then will glitter, as fired anew.
E'en as an insect, bye and bye
Yonder star in its turn must die,
Making a death-bed of the sky.