The first faint dawn was flushing up the skies <br />When, dreamland still bewildering mine eyes, <br />I looked out to the oak that, winter-long, <br />-- a winter wild with war and woe and wrong -- <br />Beyond my casement had been void of song. <br /> <br />And lo! with golden buds the twigs were set, <br />Live buds that warbled like a rivulet <br />Beneath a veil of willows. Then I knew <br />Those tiny voices, clear as drops of dew, <br />Those flying daffodils that fleck the blue, <br /> <br />Those sparkling visitants from myrtle isles, <br />Wee pilgrims of the sun, that measure miles <br />Innumerable over land and sea <br />With wings of shining inches. Flakes of glee, <br />They filled that dark old oak with jubilee, <br /> <br />Foretelling in delicious roundelays <br />Their dainty courtships on the dipping sprays, <br />How they should fashion nests, mate helping mate, <br />Of milkweed flax and fern-down delicate <br />To keep sky-tinted eggs inviolate. <br /> <br />Listening to those blithe notes, I slipped once more <br />From lyric dawn through dreamland's open door, <br />And there was God, Eternal Life that sings, <br />Eternal joy, brooding all mortal things, <br />A nest of stars, beneath untroubled wings.<br /><br />Katharine Lee Bates<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/yellow-warblers/
