Poems (Welby)/To a Humming-Bird

by Amelia Welby

TO A HUMMING-BIRD.

A merry welcome to thee, glittering bird!
 Lover of summer flowers and sunny things!
A night hath past since my young buds have heard
 The music of thy rainbow-colored wings—
Wings, that flash sparkles out where'er they quiver,
Like sudden sunlight rushing o'er a river.

A merry welcome and a treat for thee!
 Here are fresh blossoms opening bright and new,
Ready to yield thee, for thy melody,
 Their first rich sighs and drops of honey-dew,
Opening their blushing petals to the glances
Of silvery sheen, that round thy light form dances.

Methinks thou 'rt early out—the queenly night
 Her star-gemmed curtain scarce has folded back;
And now the glorious sun, a monarch bright,
 Bursts forth into his gold-pavilioned track,
Kissing from dew-bent flowers the tears of even,
And scattering the bright mists from earth and heaven.

How fair is all around! and thou, bright thing.
 Though but a speck, a brilliant one thou art;
I almost think the humming of thy wing
 Must be the merry echoes of thy heart;
For what if other birds have happier voices?
Thou need'st not care—thy very wing rejoices.

Child of the sunshine! bird of summer hours!
 Brief is thy life, yet happy as 't is brief,
For thou wilt pass away when bloom-touched flowers
 Are fading from the green earth, leaf by leaf;
I envy thee, for when the things we cherish
Are withering round, 't is meet with them to perish.

Here thou may'st banquet till the first faint gleams
 Of twilight wander o'er the face of day,
Wooing our spirits to the land of dreams;
 Then on a sunbeam thou wilt flit away;
But, at the earliest dawn of morning's hour,
I'll welcome thee again unto my bower.