 | A thousand more verses |  |
93
TO DEAD BUTTERFLIES.
Sun-gilded things, jewels with wings,
Joying, with tremulous motion,
How overhead gaily you sped,
Through the air's crystalline ocean!
Joying, with tremulous motion,
How overhead gaily you sped,
Through the air's crystalline ocean!
Born into glee, fluttering free
From the cold coffins that bound you,
Bright did you blaze, mid the warm days,
And the new freedom around you!
From the cold coffins that bound you,
Bright did you blaze, mid the warm days,
And the new freedom around you!
Once you were down, worm-like and brown,
In the weeds' chill-spreading shadows:
Then, death defying, far you were flying
Over the gardens and meadows.
In the weeds' chill-spreading shadows:
Then, death defying, far you were flying
Over the gardens and meadows.
| A thousand more verses | |