New-Comers

 

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 uses 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 ope and close

Their wings, like babies with their toes.