AH, well I know the reason why They called her by that graceful name: She seems a creature born with wings, O'er which a rainbow spirit flings Fair hues of softly shifting flame; Light is she as the changeful air, Borne on gay humors everywhere, Bewitchingly. Her soul hath seldom breathed a sigh; No hint of care hath ever stirred Her being; sunshine and the breeze Have been the fairy witnesses Of all those joys our happy bird Hath from the golden fountains drawn Of youth unsullied as the dawn, So lavishly. Full many a flower, just hovering nigh, In life's broad garden, rife with sweets, She deftly drains of nectar dew; Then, sylph-like, sweeps o'er pathways new To taste some balmier bliss she meets; Now flashing fast through myrtle bowers, Now clinging to red lips of flowers, Capriciously. Forbear, rash heart! forbear to try Our bird to capture with your wiles, For, lo! she glimmers like a beam Of fancy, on from dream to dream: Vain are a lover's tears or smiles To check her flight bewildering, To tame her soul, or chain her wing Submissively. Nay! let the dazzling fairy fly From flower to flower, so gladly whirled; Cruel it were her matchless light By one rude touch to dim or blight, To see her luminous pinions furled In grosser airs than those which stray Round the fresh rosebuds of the May, Deliciously. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A BANJO SONG by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI: 5. THE STEVEDORES by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER BETH GELERT; OR, THE GRAVE OF THE GREYHOUND by WILLIAM ROBERT SPENCER MY FRIEND by JOHANNA AMBROSIUS THE ARGONAUTS (ARGONATUICA): AMOR OMNIPOTENS by APOLLONIUS RHODIUS |