Creature of air and light, <br />Emblem of that which cannot die, <br />Wilt thou not speed thy flight, <br />To chase the south wind through the sunny sky? <br />What lures thee thus to stay, <br />With silence and decay, <br />Fix'd on the wreck of dull mortality? <br /> <br />The thoughts once chamber'd there <br />Have gather'd up their treasures and are gone: <br />Will the dust tell us where <br />They that have burst the prison-house are flown? <br />Rise, nursling of the day, <br />If thou wouldst trace their way; <br />Earth has no voice to make the secret known. <br /> <br />Who seeks the vanish'd bird <br />By the forsaken nest and broken shell? <br />Far hence he sings unheard, <br />Yet free and joyous, 'midst the woods to dwell. <br />Thou of the sunshine born, <br />Take the bright wings of morn; <br />Thy hope calls heavenward from yon ruin'd cell.<br /><br />Felicia Dorothea Hemans<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-a-butterfly-resting-upon-a-skull/
