This poem was published in a book called “The complete reader”, by E.T. Stevens and C. Hole, in 1866,
The Hummingbird! the Hummingbird!
So fairylike and bright; ?It lives among the sunny flowers,
A creature of delight!
In the radiant islands of the East,
Where fragrant spices grow, ?A thousand, thousand Hummingbirds
Go glancing to and fro.
Like living fires they flit about,
Scarce larger than a bee, Among the broad palmetto leaves,
And through the fan-palm tree.
And in those wild and verdant woods,
Where stately mosses tower, ?Where hangs from branching tree to tree
The scarlet passion-flower—
Where, on the mighty river-banks,
La Plate and Amazon,
The cayman, like an old tree-trunk,
Lies basking in the sun;
There builds her nest the Hummingbird,
Within the ancient wood— Her nest of silken cotton-down—
And rears her tiny brood.
She hangs it to a slender twig,
Where waves it light and free, As the campanero tolls his song,
And rocks the mighty tree.
All crimson is her shining breast,
Like to the red, red rose; ?Her wing is the changeful green and blue
That the neck of the peacock shows.
Thou happy, happy Hummingbird,
No winter round thee lours; Thou never saw’st a leafless tree
Nor land without sweet flowers !
A reign of summer joyfulness
To thee for life is given; ?Thy food, the honey from the flower,
Thy drink, the dew from heaven.
Author: Mary Howitt.
A few notes:
“Lour” means to look dark and gloomy
verdant = green, like grass, and crimson is dark red
stately = grand, lofty
cayman is an american crocodile
brood is family of young ones
campanero is a type of bird
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