The Humming Bird
Reading edition
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.