I

I N the churchyard's holy precincts the autumnal sun shone bright,
Tinging the rich flowers and grasses with fine threads of golden light.
Where the granite cross uprising marked the fountain as it leapt
Life-like into air and gladness, a child robed in her beauty slept.

II

Stretched beside its mossy basin, in deep shadow she reposed,
While her lids, like folded leaflets, o'er her violet eyeballs closed;
And the breeze played o'er her tresses, while the sound of water stole
Through her being, deepening slumber, as it lulled the unconscious soul.

III

But she started from her vision, for her little hand had caught
'Mid the flowers a treasure hidden, and a marvel found unsought;
Then she gently bent above it with hushed breath and glad surprise,
While the sparkle of excitement lightened in her ardent eyes.

IV

In her silken kerchief gathered, formed as of inwoven air,
A light butterfly descended she had caught and guarded there;
All its dancing, gliding, flitting, all its wild caprices shown,
Now were ended; unbefriended, it was prisoned and alone.

V

It was bound in beauty's meshes, it was held by roseate hands,
It was watched by eyes whose brightness lightened through those silken bands;
But it better loved its freedom, and it better loved to soar
Heavenward on its joyous pinions, and to feel restraint no more.

VI

But love cannot solder fetters, links are severed, rivets worn,
Till the opened rent enlarging lets within the rays of morn;
And that butterfly, escaping, flitted forth to life again,
And behind it left for ever the enchantress and her den.

VII

There she stood, the gem and fancy of the hour escaped, the thing
Of a life elastic, joyous, that from her had taken wing;
And the tears on her bright eyelids gathered, as the dews that wet
Violets' enfolding leaflets, when the sun has o'er them set.

VIII

While her upraised eyes were gazing on its flight, tears dimmed her cheek,
And her parting lips were opened, but her grief she could not speak;
Yet she sought not for its thraldom, nor that slavery would renew,
For she felt its freedom's blessing, and its happiness she knew.

IX

She would have withheld it earthward, but to lavish all her love;
She forgot, or knew not, watching, that its life aspired above;
There it flitted, danced, and lightened as it soared beyond control,
Till the stars that round it brightened seemed a portion of its soul!

X

But God's solemn revelations are on Nature's forehead bound:
All that seek the aspiring spirit in respondent types are found
Of the silent One, the Eternal; 't is ourselves the voices give
To the tongueless revelations that within and round us live.

XI

For the Ineffable for ever thus His will to man reveals;
Vested in the robes of nature, God His formless self conceals;
And His mightiest truths to childlike faith He opens, by o'ergrown
Children felt not, in their bosom buried, or forgot, or flown.

XII

Lo, the Soul for moments prisoned in its frailest cell of clay!
In vain youth and love withheld it, prayers and oaths, it could not stay.
Life and death were born within it, and the undeveloped wings;
And the eyes from far descrying heavenward heights to which it springs.

XIII

But that butterfly elastic dies in its ascent to heaven;
To that being fine and plastic, life enduring was not given;
For those airy wings were mortal, that light form of dust was made;
As the inmost spirit opened, so the outward flower decayed!

XIV

But the mightiest, the Holy, the great Life that fills the space,
One, apart, but ever present, to its deathless dwelling-place
Took that faintest spark while dying in its embers, to enshrine
With existence that for ever mingles with his life divine.