Motes

UP and down, up and down,
In the air the sunshine mellows--
Green or yellow, gold or brown,
See those gay capricious fellows!
Sparkling, glittering, frisking, dancing,
Now retreating, now advancing,
Livelier than the jolliest clown,
Tinier than the tiniest fairy
That e'er robbed a farmer's dairy
Of the luscious cream which floats
Round his frothed and brimming bowls
Buoyant, tireless little souls!
Who can fold them,
Catch or hold them?
Evanescent,
Omnipresent,
Shy eluders,
Bold obtruders,
Past all joking, most provoking,
Tricksy, whisky, frisky.
Motes.

Up and down, up and down,
Light in sunshine, lost in shadow--
Green or yellow, gold or brown,
Over hill and over meadow,
Swiftly over
Rock-ribbed height and billowy clover,
Still advancing,
Still retreating,
Glittering, fleeting,
Never dozing, nor reposing,
But forever dancing, dancing;
And in numberless quaint fusions,
And eye-dazzling convolutions,
Deftly sped
Overhead--
See (where happy sunshine mellows
All the air) those jovial fellows!
Ah! ye tricksome waifs and tiny,
Who may circumvent and bind ye?
Can it be such creatures antic,
Unrestrained, grotesquely frantic,
Are but small nymphs out of school,
Laughing at all graver rule?
Or loose sylphides, bent on sowing,
Sowing,
Sowing,
In their thoughtless mirth o'erflowing,
Naughty crops of wildish oats?
How they jostle, whirl and hustle,
Up and down, up and down,
Through the air the sunshine mellows!
Green or yellow, gold or brown,
All those gay, capricious fellows,
Evanescent,
Omnipresent,
Shy eluders,
Bold obtruders,
Past all joking, most provoking,
Tricksy, whisky, frisky,
Motes!