LIGHTER than dandelion down,
Or feathers from the white moth’s wing,
Out of the gates of bramble-town
The silkweed goes a-gypsying.
Too fair to fly in autumn’s rout,
All winter in the sheath it lay;
But now, when spring is pushing out,
The zephyr calls, “Away! Away!”
Through mullein, bramble, brake, and fern,
Up from their cradle-spring they fly,
Beyond the boundary wall to turn
And voyage through the friendly sky.
Softly, as if instinct with thought,
They float and drift, delay and turn;
And one avoids and one is caught
Between an oak-leaf and a fern.
And one holds by an airy line
The spider drew from tree to tree;
And if the web is light and fine,
‘T is not so light and fine as he!
And one goes questing up the wall
As if to find a door; and then,
As if he did not care at all,
Goes over and adown the glen.
And all in airiest fashion fare
Adventuring, as if, indeed,
‘T were not so grave a thing to bear
The burden of a seed!
(Philip Henry Savage)
More Poetry from Philip Henry Savage:
Philip Henry Savage Poems based on Topics: Light, Nature, Mind, Spring, Thought & Thinking, Autumn, Hospitality- Solitude (Philip Henry Savage Poems)
- Anadyomene (Philip Henry Savage Poems)
- The Hedgerow (Philip Henry Savage Poems)
- "I Left The City" (Philip Henry Savage Poems)
- Near The White Ledge, Sandwich, N. H. (Philip Henry Savage Poems)
- The Song-Sparrow (Philip Henry Savage Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Light Poems, Mind Poems, Nature Poems, Thought & Thinking Poems, Spring Poems, Autumn Poems, Hospitality PoemsBased on Keywords: mullein, avoids, adventuring, airiest, oak-leaf, a-gypsying
- Vision Of Columbus - Book 7 (Joel Barlow Poems)
- Advice To Ev'ry Master Of A Family, To Govern His House In A Religious Manner (Rees Prichard Poems)
- Fingal - Book IV (James Macpherson Poems)
- Otho The Great - Act III (John Keats Poems)
- By The Seaside : The Building Of The Ship (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Poems)