To a Butterfly

STAY near me—-do not take thy flight!
A little longer stay in sight!
Much converse do I find in thee,
Historian of my infancy
Float near me; do not yet depart,
Dead times revive in thee:
Thou bring'st, gay creature as thou art,
A solemn image to my heart,
My father's family!

Oh! pleasant, pleasant were the days,
The time, when, in our childish plays,
My sister Emmeline* and I
Together chased the butterfly!
A very hunter did I rush
Upon the prey:—-with leaps and spring
I followed on from brake to bush;
But she, God love her, feared to brush
The dust from off its wings.


* Emmeline, like Emma, is a pseudonym Wordsworth uses for his sister Dorothy. Nowhere in his poetry does he call her by her own name.