So many birds have come along, The nightingale brings her sweet song, With lease to charm, by her own self, The nights of this best month in twelve. To sit up all a night in June With that sweet bird and a full moon -- The moon with all Heav'n for her worth, The nightingale to have this earth, And there we are for joy -- we three. And here's the swallow, wild and free, Prince flyer of the air by day; For doth he not, in human way, Dive, float and use side strokes, like men Swimming in some clear lake? And then, See how he skates the iceless pond! And lo! the lark springs from the land; He sees a ladder to Heaven's gate, And, step by step, without abate, He mounts it singing, back and forth; Till twenty steps or more from earth, On his return, then without sound He jumps, and stone-like drops to ground. And here are butterflies; poor things Amazed with new-created wings; They in the air-waves roll distrest Like ships at sea; and when they rest They cannot help but ope and close Their wings, like babies with their toes. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE ERL-KING by JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE UNGRATEFULNESS by GEORGE HERBERT TO THE VIRGINS, TO MAKE MUCH OF TIME by ROBERT HERRICK PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S BURIAL HYMN by WALT WHITMAN CIRCUMSTANCE by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH |