| |
| MY little Mädchen found one day | |
| A curious something in her play, | |
| That was not fruit, nor flower, nor seed; | |
| It was not anything that grew, | |
| Or crept, or climbed, or swam, or flew; | 5 |
| Had neither legs nor wings, indeed; | |
| And yet she was not sure, she said, | |
| Whether it was alive or dead. | |
| |
| She brought it in her tiny hand | |
| To see if I would understand, | 10 |
| And wondered when I made reply, | |
| “You’ve found a baby butterfly.” | |
| “A butterfly is not like this,” | |
| With doubtful look she answered me. | |
| So then I told her what would be | 15 |
| Some day within the chrysalis; | |
| How, slowly, in the dull brown thing | |
| Now still as death, a spotted wing, | |
| And then another, would unfold, | |
| Till from the empty shell would fly | 20 |
| A pretty creature, by and by, | |
| All radiant in blue and gold. | |
| |
| “And will it, truly?” questioned she— | |
| Her laughing lips and eager eyes | |
| All in a sparkle of surprise— | 25 |
| “And shall your little Mädchen see?” | |
| “She shall!” I said. How could I tell | |
| That ere the worm within its shell | |
| Its gauzy, splendid wings had spread, | |
| My little Mädchen would be dead? | 30 |
| |
| To-day the butterfly has flown,— | |
| She was not here to see it fly,— | |
| And sorrowing I wonder why | |
| The empty shell is mine alone. | |
| Perhaps the secret lies in this: | 35 |
| I too had found a chrysalis, | |
| And Death that robbed me of delight | |
| Was but the radiant creature’s flight! | |
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