Classic Poem

On the warm and perfumed dark
Glows the firefly's tender spark
Copse, and dell and lonesome plain
Catch the drops of lambent rain.
Scattered swarms are snarled among
Boughs where thrushes brood their young.
Little cups of daisies hold
Tapers that illume their gold.
See! they light their floating lamps
Where the katydid encamps,
Glint the ripples soft and cool
On the grassy-cinctured pool,
Poise where blood-red roses burn,
And rills creep under drooping fern,
Weave inconstant spangles through
Vines that drip with fragrant dew,
And mid clumps of dusky pine
In the mournful silence shine.
They cling to tufts of the morass;
The meadow lilies feel them pass;
They deck the turf about the feet
Of lovers hid in shadows sweet,
And round the musing poet, gleam
Like scintillations of his dream.

O winged spark! effulgent mite!
Live atom of the Infinite!
Thou doest what for thee is done,
In thy place faithful as the sun.
Love's highest law compels thy heart;
All that thou hast thou dost impart;
Thy life is lighted at its core—
Sages and saints achieve no more.