  I. Winged wonder of motion In splendor of sheen, Cruising the shining blue Waters all day, Smit with hunger of heart And seized of a quest Which nor beauty of flower Nor promise of rest Has charm to appease Or slacken or stay,— What is it you seek, Unopen, unseen? II. Are you blind to the sight Of the heavens of blue, Or the wind-fretted clouds On their white, airy wings, Or the emerald grass That velvets the lawn, Or glory of meadows Aflame like the dawn? Are you deaf to the note In the woodland that rings With the song of the whitethroat, As crystal as dew? III. Winged wonder of motion In splendor of sheen, Stay, stay a brief moment Thy hither and thither Quick-beating wings, Thy flashes of flight; And tell me thy heart, Is it sad, is it light, Is it pulsing with fears Which scorch it and wither, Or joys that up-well In a girdle of green? IV. "O breather of words And poet of life, I tremble with joy, I flutter with fear! Ages it seemeth, Yet only to-day Into this world of Gold sunbeams at play, I came from the deeps. O crystalline sphere! O beauteous light! O glory of life! V. "On the watery floor Of this sibilant lake, I lived in the twilight dim. 'There's a world of Day,' Some pled, 'a world Of ether and wings athrob Close over our head.' 'It's a dream, it's a whim, A whisper of reeds,' they said,— And anon the waters would sob, And ever the going Went on to the dead Without the glint of a ray, And the watchers watched In their vanishing wake. VI. "The passing Passed for aye, And the waiting Waited in vain! Some power seemed to enfold The tremulous waters around, Yet never in heat Nor in shrivelling cold, Nor darkness deep or grey,— Came token of sound or touch,— A clear unquestioned 'Yea!' And the scoffers scoffed, In swelling refrain, 'Let us eat and drink, For to-morrow we die.' VII. "But, O, in a trance of bliss, With gauzy wings I awoke! An ecstasy bore me away O'er field and meadow and plain. I thought not of recent pain, But revelled, as splendors broke From sun and cloud and air, In the eye of golden Day. VIII. "I'm yearning to break To my fellows below The secret of ages hoar; In the quick-flashing light I dart up and down, Forth and back, everywhere, But the waters are sealed Like a pavement of glass,— Sealed that I may not pass. O for waters of air! Or the wing of an eagle's might To cleave a pathway below!" IX. And the Dragonfly in splendor Cruises ever o'er the lake, Holding in his heart a secret Which in vain he seeks to break. |
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