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| THOU spark of life that wavest wings of gold, | |
| Thou songless wanderer mid the songful birds, | |
| With Nature’s secrets in thy tints unrolled | |
| Through gorgeous cipher, past the reach of words, | |
| Yet dear to every child | 5 |
| In glad pursuit beguiled, | |
| Living his unspoiled days mid flowers and flocks and herds! | |
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| Thou winged blossom, liberated thing, | |
| What secret tie binds thee to other flowers, | |
| Still held within the garden’s fostering? | 10 |
| Will they too soar with the completed hours, | |
| Take flight, and be like thee | |
| Irrevocably free, | |
| Hovering at will o’er their parental bowers? | |
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| Or is thy lustre drawn from heavenly hues,— | 15 |
| A sumptuous drifting fragment of the sky, | |
| Caught when the sunset its last glance imbues | |
| With sudden splendor, and the tree-tops high | |
| Grasp that swift blazonry, | |
| Then lend those tints to thee, | 20 |
| On thee to float a few short hours, and die? | |
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| Birds have their nests; they rear their eager young, | |
| And flit on errands all the livelong day; | |
| Each fieldmouse keeps the homestead whence it sprung; | |
| But thou art Nature’s freeman,—free to stray | 25 |
| Unfettered through the wood, | |
| Seeking thine airy food, | |
| The sweetness spiced on every blossomed spray. | |
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| The garden one wide banquet spreads for thee, | |
| O daintiest reveller of the joyous earth! | 30 |
| One drop of honey gives satiety; | |
| A second draught would drug thee past all mirth. | |
| Thy feast no orgy shows; | |
| Thy calm eyes never close, | |
| Thou soberest sprite to which the sun gives birth. | 35 |
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| And yet the soul of man upon thy wings | |
| Forever soars in aspiration; thou | |
| His emblem of the new career that springs | |
| When death’s arrest bids all his spirit bow. | |
| He seeks his hope in thee | 40 |
| Of immortality. | |
| Symbol of life, me with such faith endow! | |
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