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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


A WOOD ORCHID by ANONYMOUS

First Line: "A BUTTERFLY, WING-WEARY, CAME TO FIND"
Last Line: OF PINK FLUSHED WINGS -- AND FOUND THEM ROOTED THERE
Subject(s): BUTTERFLIES;INSECTS; BUGS;

A BUTTERFLY, wing-weary, came to find
A sweet seclusion from the amorous wind,
Deep in the pine woods, where the dusky trees
Shut in the forest's sounding silences
With close-twined boughs from which the breeze has blown
The fragrance-breathing fragments of the cone.
Deeply she drank the nectar of repose.
Spreading her downy wings all veined with rose,
Upon the gray-green mosses, cool and dank,
Languished the sprite, and in a swoon she sank,
While a delicious numbness born of death
Stilled the soft wings that stirred with each faint breath.
One summer morning, while the languid breeze
Strayed with a languid murmur thro' the trees,
It breathed a kiss upon a folded pair
Of pink flushed wings -- and found them rooted there.



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