dots-menu
×

Home  »  An American Anthology, 1787–1900  »  966 The Mariposa Lily

Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By InaCoolbrith

966 The Mariposa Lily

INSECT or blossom? Fragile, fairy thing,

Poised upon slender tip, and quivering

To flight! a flower of the fields of air;

A jewelled moth; a butterfly, with rare

And tender tints upon his downy wing,

A moment resting in our happy sight;

A flower held captive by a thread so slight

Its petal-wings of broidered gossamer

Are, light as the wind, with every wind astir,—

Wafting sweet odor, faint and exquisite.

O dainty nursling of the field and sky,

What fairer thing looks up to heaven’s blue

And drinks the noontide sun, the dawning’s dew?

Thou wingëd bloom! thou blossom-butterfly!