Ode to a Butterfly by Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Thou spark of life that wavest wings of gold, <br />Thou songless wanderer mid the songful birds, <br />With Nature's secrets in thy tints unrolled <br />Through gorgeous cipher, past the reach of words, <br />Yet dear to every child <br />In glad pursuit beguiled, <br />Living his unspoiled days mid flowers and flocks and herds! <br /> <br />Thou winged blossom, liberated thing, <br />What secret tie binds thee to other flowers, <br />Still held within the garden's fostering? <br />Will they too soar with the completed hours, <br />Take flight, and be like thee <br />Irrevocably free, <br />Hovering at will o'er their parental bowers? <br /> <br />Or is thy luster drawn from heavenly hues, - <br />A sumptuous drifting fragment of the sky, <br />Caught when the sunset its last glance imbues <br />With sudden splendor, and the tree-tops high <br />Grasp that swift blazonry, <br />Then lend those tints to thee, <br />On thee to float a few short hours, and die? <br /> <br />Birds have their nests; they rear their eager young, <br />And flit on errands all the livelong day; <br />Each fieldmouse keeps the homestead whence it sprung; <br />But thou art Nature's freeman, - free to stray <br />Unfettered through the wood, <br />Seeking thine airy food, <br />The sweetness spiced on every blossomed spray. <br /> <br />The garden one wide banquet spreads for thee, <br />O daintiest reveller of the joyous earth! <br />One drop of honey gives satiety; <br />A second draught would drug thee past all mirth. <br />Thy feast no orgy shows; <br />Thy calm eyes never close, <br />Thou soberest sprite to which the sun gives birth. <br /> <br />And yet the soul of man upon thy wings <br />Forever soars in aspiration; thou <br />His emblem of the new career that springs <br />When death's arrest bids all his spirit bow. <br />He seeks his hope in thee <br />Of immortality. <br />Symbol of life, me with such faith endow!<br /><br />Thomas Wentworth Higginson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/ode-to-a-butterfly-2/