Page:A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields.djvu/174

Rh Gay butterflies the girls adore,
 * And wasps with waists that taper;

None escape my watchful sight, I arrest them in their flight, Sudden and sharp them down I smite,
 * And fix them on my paper.

My songs and merry roundelays And ballads with them are ablaze! As I arrange them in all ways
 * How prettily they glitter!

Now in long collars are they set, And now they dance a pirouette, Like waves or coryphées coquette,
 * And like the finches twitter.

All obstacles, no matter what, Must yield before the acrobat; And I am that and only that,
 * No poet great or gifted.

But I can rhymes with ease coerce, And verse precipitate on verse, Like balls that cross, unite, disperse,
 * By jugglers deftly shifted.

Look at my chariot and my team! When on these steeds the sun-rays gleam, Apollo's own they almost seem,
 * And well may critics wonder!

I love their long, long rapid strides, Their tossing manes, their glossy sides! Away! Their speed the winds deride
 * When slack-reined on they thunder!