Oh, I see a butterfly flap
its wing, a second, a thousand claps,
moving swiftly through the air
in and out of its lair.
The beauty, the elegance it harbors,
its view is what my eye now favors.
It moves in silence—what a beauty!
Yet ignored. A pity!
Its life a short span,
but I am always its fan,
when it moves swiftly through the air,
in and out of its lair.
Originally published on Paradise Lost.