 | Poems and verses by Mary Mapes Dodge |  |
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FIRE-FLIES.
See the air filling near by and afar,—
A shadowy host—how brilliant they are!
A shadowy host—how brilliant they are!
Silently flitting, spark upon spark,
Gemming the willows out in the dark;
Gemming the willows out in the dark;
Waking the night in a twinkling surprise,
Making the star-light pale where they rise;
Making the star-light pale where they rise;
Snowing soft fire-flakes into the grass,
Lighting the face of each daisy they pass;
Lighting the face of each daisy they pass;
Startling the darkness, over and over,
Where the sly pimpernel kisses the clover;
Where the sly pimpernel kisses the clover;
Piercing the duskiest heights of the pines;
Drowsily poised on the low-swinging vines;
Drowsily poised on the low-swinging vines;
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Suddenly shifting their tapers around,
Now on the fences, and now on the ground,
Now on the fences, and now on the ground,
Now in the bushes and tree-tops, and then
Pitching them far into darkness again;
Pitching them far into darkness again;
There like a shooting-star, slowly on wing,
Here like the flash of a dowager's ring;
Here like the flash of a dowager's ring;
Setting the dark, croaking hollows a-gleam,
Spangling the gloom of the ghoul-haunted stream;
Spangling the gloom of the ghoul-haunted stream;
They pulse and they sparkle in shadowy play,
Like a night fallen down with its stars all astray;
Like a night fallen down with its stars all astray;
They pulse and they flicker, they kindle afar,
A vanishing host,—but how brilliant they are!
A vanishing host,—but how brilliant they are!
| Poems and verses by Mary Mapes Dodge | |