The Humming Bird
Blithe wanderer from some happier sphere
What hither darting brought you here
Swift as a flash of light,
With rainbow spatters on your throat
Aflutter like a dancing mote
Upon a sunbeam bright.
Bold atom of exultant life
With energy and action rife
And pinions all ablurr,
What glad exuberance of wing
Like harping on a fairy string
Evokes that vibrant whirr?
With humming, strumming melody
Like some supernal bumble bee
You flit about to sup
On honey dew. Your fearless beak
Probes, lancet like, those sweets to seek
Within each nectared cup.
Ah birdikin, now here, now there,
Poised elfinlike, upon the air
Aglitter like the dawn,
How ardently we would beguile
So fair a sprite to rest a while
But flash! and you are gone.
Yet the unspoken word you bring
Still lingers. Time is on the wing
And never may be stayed.
So let us sip each honeyed hour
For life itself is but a flower
That all too soon will fade.