A Humming-Bird by Edith Thomas

Somewhere I've seen thee, strange sprite,
Somewhere I've known thee ere now,
Among the wild broods of the night
That nest on the Morphean bough!

Thou with a silent throat
Dost busily rifle all blooms;
O flitter-winged bandit, thy note
Is the bee's song shed from thy plumes!

Whisper those things in my ear,
That thou art so ready to tell
To creatures too heedless to hear, —
The lily, the foxglove's bell!

Aha! is it so? — By these eyes,
Prospero's servant I see, —
Ariel clad in the guise
Of a humming-bird lightsome and free!