"To a Butterfly"

          "Butterfly,
               Thou trifling thing,
          Bright of color,
               Light of wing,— 
Hast thou, then, no other care
Than to ornament the air?
          Hither, thither,
               High and low,
          Why and whither
               Dost thou go?"
"From the garden to the hedge.
From the field-flower to the sedge,
  I flutter, flutter everywhere.
          Save to be fair
               I have no care,—
          An idler am I."
               "Oh, fie! Oh, fie!
Hence, thou useless thing, away!
Nay!—thou needed beauty,—stay!" 

⸺ Elizabeth Hill, "St. Nicholas" magazine, August 1892