| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Georgian Verse. 1909. | | | | To the Butterfly | | By Samuel Rogers (1763–1855) |
| | | CHILD of the sun! pursue thy rapturous flight, | |
| Mingling with her thou lov’st in fields of light; | |
| And, where the flowers of Paradise unfold, | |
| Quaff fragrant nectar from their cups of gold. | |
| There shall thy wings, rich as an evening-sky, | 5 |
| Expand and shut with silent ecstasy! | |
| —Yet wert thou once a worm, a thing that crept | |
| On the bare earth, then wrought a tomb and slept. | |
| And such is man; soon from his cell of clay | |
| To burst a seraph in the blaze of day! | 10 | | | |
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