FIREFLIES

by: Edgar Fawcett (1847-1904)

SAW, one sultry night above a swamp,

The darkness throbbing with their golden pomp!

 

And long my dazzled sight they did entrance

With the weird chaos of their dizzy dance!

 

Quicker than yellow leaves, when gales despoil,

Quivered the brilliance of their mute turmoil,

 

Within whose light was intricately blent

Perpetual rise, perpetual descent.

 

As though their scintillant flickerings had met

In the vague meshes of some airy net!

 

And now mysteriously I seemed to guess,

While watching their tumultuous loveliness,

 

What fervor of deep passion strangely thrives

In the warm richness of these tropic lives,

 

Whose wings can never tremble but they show

These hearts of living fire that beat below!

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