Poetry & Analysis
Selected Butterfly Poems
Animal PoemsButterflies
Once in a garden, when the thrush’s song,
Pealing at morn, made holy all the air,
Till earth was healed of many an ancient wrong,
And life appeared another name for prayer,
Rose suddenly a swarm of butterflies,
On wings of white and gold and azure fire;
And one said, “These are flowers that seek the skies,
Loosed by the spell of their supreme desire.”
Overview Short Summary
Roberts’s “Butterflies” imagines butterflies as flowers that have been released into the sky by desire.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Spiritual beauty: The morning garden feels holy.
- Transformation: Butterflies are imagined as flowers becoming airborne.
- Desire: Their flight is powered by “supreme desire.”
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is reverent and radiant. The mood is uplifting because the garden becomes prayerful and skyward.
Interpretation Animal Symbolism
Butterflies symbolize freed beauty, desire, and the transformation of earthbound flowers into sky-seeking life.
Close Reading Stanza-by-Stanza Explanation
Stanza 1
The poem begins in a sacred morning garden filled with thrush song.
Stanza 2
A swarm of butterflies rises, and the speaker interprets them as flowers released into the sky.
Literary Technique Imagery and Personification
The poem uses garden, thrush song, holy air, white, gold, azure fire, flowers, and sky imagery. Personification appears when desire releases flowers into flight.
Craft Literary Devices
- Metaphor: Butterflies are flowers seeking the skies.
- Imagery: White, gold, and azure fire create radiant color.
- Spiritual diction: Holy, healed, and prayer elevate the scene.
- Symbolism: Flight represents spiritual aspiration.
Poetic Form Rhyme Scheme and Structure
The poem uses two rhymed quatrains with a clear movement from garden stillness to upward flight.
The Soul of a Butterfly
Over the field where the brown quails whistle,
Over the ferns where the rabbits lie,
Floats the tremulous down of a thistle.
Is it the soul of a butterfly?
See! how they scatter and then assemble;
Filling the air while the blossoms fade,—
Delicate atoms, that whirl and tremble
In the slanting sunlight that skirts the glade.
There goes the summer’s inconstant lover,
Drifting and wandering, faint and far;
Only bewailed by the upland plover,
Watched by only the twilight star.
Come next August, when thistles blossom,
See how each is alive with wings!
Butterflies seek their souls in its bosom,
Changed thenceforth to immortal things.
Overview Short Summary
“The Soul of a Butterfly” links butterflies, thistle-down, summer fading, and immortality.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Soul symbolism: The butterfly is directly connected with soul imagery.
- Seasonal change: Blossoms fade and summer drifts away.
- Immortality: The poem imagines transformation into “immortal things.”
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is wistful, delicate, and spiritual. The mood is twilight-like because beauty is fading but not lost.
Interpretation Animal Symbolism
The butterfly symbolizes the soul, delicacy, and the transformation of summer life into something immortal.
Close Reading Stanza-by-Stanza Explanation
Stanza 1
The speaker sees floating thistle-down and asks whether it might be the soul of a butterfly.
Stanza 2
The delicate particles scatter and assemble in slanting sunlight.
Stanza 3
Summer’s inconstant lover drifts away into distance.
Stanza 4
The poem imagines butterflies finding their souls in thistle blossoms and becoming immortal.
Literary Technique Imagery and Personification
The poem uses fields, quails, ferns, rabbits, thistle-down, sunlight, glade, plover, twilight star, and August thistles. Personification appears in summer’s “inconstant lover.”
Craft Literary Devices
- Rhetorical question: The opening asks if thistle-down is the butterfly’s soul.
- Metaphor: Thistle-down becomes butterfly soul.
- Imagery: Seasonal and twilight images create softness.
- Symbolism: Butterflies represent spiritual continuation.
Poetic Form Rhyme Scheme and Structure
The poem uses four rhymed quatrains. Its structure moves from question to seasonal meditation to spiritual transformation.
A Butterfly Talks
A butterfly talks to each flower
And stops to eat and drink,
And I have seen one lighting
In a quiet spot to think;
For there are many things he sees that puzzle him, indeed,
And I believe he thinks as well as some who write and read.
Overview Short Summary
“A Butterfly Talks” imagines the butterfly as a thinking, flower-talking creature.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Personality: The butterfly is given thought and conversation.
- Flower relationship: It talks to flowers and feeds from them.
- Childlike wonder: The poem believes that a butterfly may think.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is playful and thoughtful. The mood is gentle because the butterfly becomes a small philosopher.
Interpretation Animal Symbolism
The butterfly symbolizes curiosity, quiet thought, and the hidden intelligence of small life.
Close Reading Stanza-by-Stanza Explanation
Single Stanza
The poem describes the butterfly talking to flowers, stopping to eat and drink, resting to think, and puzzling over the world.
Literary Technique Imagery and Personification
The poem uses images of flowers, eating, drinking, quiet resting, and thought. Personification is the central technique.
Craft Literary Devices
- Personification: The butterfly talks and thinks.
- Imagery: Flower and quiet-spot imagery make the scene gentle.
- Humor: The final comparison with people who read and write is playful.
- Childlike perspective: The poem sees the animal with imaginative sympathy.
Poetic Form Rhyme Scheme and Structure
The poem is a short six-line lyric with simple rhyme and easy classroom appeal.
Milkweed
O, patient creature with a peasant face,
Burnt by the summer sun, begrimed with stains,
And standing humbly in the dusty lanes!
There seems a mystery in thy work and place,
Which crowns thee with significance and grace;
Whose is the milk that fills thy faithful veins?
What royal nursling comes at night and drains
Unscorned the food of the plebeian race?
By day I mark no living thing which rests
On thee save butterflies of gold and brown,
Who turn from flowers that are more fair, more sweet,
And crowding eagerly sink fluttering down
And hang, like jewels flashing in the heat,
Upon thy splendid rounded purple breasts.
Overview Short Summary
“Milkweed” is a plant poem, but butterflies are central to its mystery. They choose humble milkweed over sweeter flowers and become jewels in the heat.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Butterfly and flower relationship: Butterflies gather on the milkweed.
- Hidden value: A humble plant becomes significant and graceful.
- Nature’s mystery: The poem asks what royal creature is nourished by milkweed.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is reverent and observant. The mood is quietly amazed because a dusty roadside plant becomes beautiful through butterflies.
Interpretation Animal Symbolism
The butterflies symbolize hidden royalty, delicate beauty, and the power to reveal value in humble places.
Close Reading Stanza-by-Stanza Explanation
Octave
The speaker addresses milkweed as a humble but mysterious plant.
Sestet
The poem reveals that butterflies rest on it like flashing jewels, giving the plant grace and importance.
Literary Technique Imagery and Personification
The poem uses imagery of dusty lanes, summer sun, milk, gold and brown butterflies, jewels, heat, and purple breasts. Personification appears in the milkweed’s peasant face and faithful veins.
Craft Literary Devices
- Apostrophe: The speaker addresses the plant directly.
- Metaphor: Butterflies are jewels.
- Contrast: Humble milkweed contrasts with royal beauty.
- Symbolism: Butterfly presence reveals hidden grace.
Poetic Form Rhyme Scheme and Structure
The poem is sonnet-like, with octave and sestet movement from question to revelation.
Butterflies
Two golden butterflies, hither, thither flying,
Zig-zag and round about, every blossom trying;
Flitting now together, now awhile they sever;
Pretty golden butterflies, will you play forever?
My little Goldenhair, almost like a fairy,
Rivals the butterflies in their flittings airy;
All their flying follows, through the nodding daisies,
Still cannot catch them in their pretty mazes.
Dear Golden-butterfly, through the meadow dancing,
With your flying tangled curls in the sunshine glancing,
Keep time with the butterflies, gold-winged, moving ever,—
Play on, all three dearies! Your now is forever.
Little know the butterflies of what comes to-morrow,
Little knows my Butterfly of a thought of sorrow.
God sees that each childhood has its time of daisies
And of golden butterflies in their pretty mazes.
Overview Short Summary
This poem links butterflies with childhood play, innocence, and a golden meadow world untouched by sorrow.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Childhood: The child is compared to a butterfly.
- Joy and innocence: The butterflies and child play without concern for tomorrow.
- Nature play: Daisies, sunshine, and meadow movement create a child-friendly scene.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is affectionate, bright, and nostalgic. The mood is golden and innocent.
Interpretation Animal Symbolism
The butterfly symbolizes childhood joy, freedom, and the present moment before sorrow is known.
Close Reading Stanza-by-Stanza Explanation
Stanza 1
Two butterflies fly among blossoms in playful patterns.
Stanza 2
A child follows them but cannot catch them.
Stanza 3
The child and butterflies become a shared dance of golden motion.
Stanza 4
The poem reflects that childhood has its time of daisies and butterflies before sorrow enters.
Literary Technique Imagery and Personification
The poem uses images of golden butterflies, zig-zag flight, blossoms, fairies, daisies, curls, sunshine, and meadow dance. Personification appears in the butterflies playing forever.
Craft Literary Devices
- Repetition: Golden imagery repeats throughout.
- Simile: The child is almost like a fairy.
- Symbolism: Butterflies stand for childhood’s brief joy.
- Imagery: Daisies and sunshine make the poem vivid and soft.
Poetic Form Rhyme Scheme and Structure
The poem uses four rhymed stanzas with a songlike rhythm.
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