Sunday Morning Poetry #1: To a Butterfly by William Wordsworth

The Troubadour Podcast

A weekly reading and discussion of great poetry.
Epigram Engraved on the Collar of a Dog Which I Gave to His Royal Highness ​By Alexander Pope

I AM his Highness’ dog at Kew;
Pray tell me, Sir, whose dog are you?

To A Butterfly

William Wordsworth

I'VE watched you now a full half-hour; Self-poised 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 the trees, And calls you forth again!

This plot of orchard-ground is ours;
My trees they are, my Sister's flowers; Here rest your wings when they are weary; Here lodge 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.

--------

STAY near me--do not take thy flight! A little longer stay in sight!
Much converse do I find in thee, Historian of my infancy!

Float near me; do not yet depart! Dead times revive in thee:
Thou bring'st, gay creature as thou art! A solemn image to my heart,
My father's family!
Oh! pleasant, pleasant were the days, The time, when, in our childish plays, My sister Emmeline and I
Together chased the butterfly!
A very hunter did I rush
Upon the prey:--with leaps and springs I followed on from brake to bush;
But she, God love her, feared to brush The dust from off its wings.

Wordsworth 1770 - 1850 Pope 1688- 1744