Lines to a Butterfly Resting on a Skull
Creature of air and light!Emblem of that which will not fade or die!Wilt thou not speed thy flight,To chase the south wind through the glowing sky?What lures thee thus to stayWith silence and decay,Fix’d on the wreck of cold mortality?
The thoughts once chamber’d there,Have gather’d up their treasures and are gone;--Will the dust tell thee whereThat which hath burst the prison-house is flown?Rise, nursling of the day!If thou wouldst trace its way--Earth has no voice to make the secret known.
Who seeks the vanish’d birdNear the deserted nest and broken shell?Far thence, by us unheard,He sings, rejoicing in the woods to dwell:Thou of the sunshine born,Take the bright wings of morn!Thy hope springs heavenward from yon ruin’d cell.
Words in this poem
- mortality n.
- The condition or quality of being mortal; subjection to death or to the necessity of dying. [L. mortalitas: cf. F. mortalité.]
- flown a.
- Flushed, inflated.
- nursling n.
- One who, or that which, is nursed; an infant; a fondling. [Nurse + -ling.]
- unheard a.
- Not heard; not perceived by the ear; as, words unheard by those present.
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lines to a Butterfly Resting on a Skull is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Felicia Hemans, Project Gutenberg ebook #66785; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Felicia Hemans, Lines to a Butterfly Resting on a Skull, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/lines-to-a-butterfly-resting-on-a-skull.html, id L19548.
Form and metre
Lines to a Butterfly Resting on a Skull is 21 lines in 3 stanzas of 7 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABABCC- lightA · dieB · flightA · skyB · stayC · decayC · mortality
- 2 A-ABCCB thereA · gone · whereA · flownB · dayC · wayC · knownB
- 3 ABABCCB birdA · shellB · unheardA · dwellB · bornC · mornC · cellB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Creature of air and light! | 6 | /˘···· |
| Emblem of that which will not fade or die! | 10 | /˘········ |
| Wilt thou not speed thy flight, | 6 | ······ |
| To chase the south wind through the glowing sky? | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| What lures thee thus to stay | 6 | ······ |
| With silence and decay, | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| Fix’d on the wreck of cold mortality? | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| The thoughts once chamber’d there, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Have gather’d up their treasures and are gone;-- | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Will the dust tell thee where | 6 | ······ |
| That which hath burst the prison-house is flown? | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Rise, nursling of the day! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| If thou wouldst trace its way-- | 6 | ······ |
| Earth has no voice to make the secret known. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Who seeks the vanish’d bird | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Near the deserted nest and broken shell? | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Far thence, by us unheard, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| He sings, rejoicing in the woods to dwell: | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Thou of the sunshine born, | 6 | ···/·· |
| Take the bright wings of morn! | 6 | ······ |
| Thy hope springs heavenward from yon ruin’d cell. | 11 | ···/˘˘··/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.