To me, no Babbler with a tale

Of sunshine and of flowers,

Thou tellest, Cuckoo! in the vale

Of visionary hours.

Thrice welcome, Darling of the Spring!

Even yet thou art to me

No Bird; but an invisible Thing,

A voice, a mystery.

The same whom in my School-boy days

I listen'd to; that Cry

Which made me look a thousand ways; In bush, and tree, and sky.

To seek thee did I often rove
Through woods and on the green;
And thou wert still a hope, a love;
Still long'd for, never seen!

And I can listen to thee yet;
Can lie upon the plain

And listen, till I do beget

That golden time again.

O blessed Bird! the earth we pace

Again appears to be

An unsubstantial, faery place;

That is fit home for Thee!

12.

TO A BUTTERFLY.

I've watch'd you now a full half hour,
Self-pois'd upon that yellow flower;
And, little Butterfly! indeed

I know not if you sleep, or feed.
How motionless! not frozen seas

More motionless! and then

What joy awaits you, when the breeze

Hath found you out among

And calls you forth again!

the trees,

This plot of Orchard-ground is ours;

My trees they are, my Sister's flowers;

Stop here whenever you are weary,
And rest as in a sanctuary!

Come often to us, fear no wrong;

Sit near us on the bough!

We'll talk of sunshine and of

song;

And summer days, when we were young,

Sweet childish days, that were as long

As twenty days are now!

13.

It is no Spirit who from Heaven hath flown,
And is descending on his embassy;

Nor Traveller gone from Earth the Heavens to espy! 'Tis Hesperus-there he stands with glittering crown, First admonition that the sun is down!

For yet it is broad day-light: clouds pass by;

A few are near him still—and now the sky,

He hath it to himself-'tis all his own.

O most ambitious Star! an inquest wrought
Within me when I recognised thy light;
A moment I was startled at the sight:

And, while I gazed, there came to me a thought
That I might step beyond my natural race

As thou seem'st now to do; might one day trace

Some ground not mine; and, strong her strength above,

My Soul, an Apparition in the place,

Tread there, with steps that no one shall reprove!