A Sonnet for the Earth

WHEN I am weary for delight and spent,
Even as a bird that tries too long its wings
Will nest awhile amid the grass and sings,
So I drop downward from the wonderment
Of timelessness and space, in which were blent
The wind, the sunshine and the wanderings
Of all the planets -- to the little things
That are my grass and flowers and am content.

Or if in flight my wings should beat so far
From the kind grass that is so cool and deep
That it must poise among the winds on high --
Yet will I sing to thee from star to star,
Piercing thy sunshine, and will always keep
A song for thee amid the farthest sky.

--From Shoes that danced and other poems / Anna Hempstead Branch [electronic text]
Branch, Anna Hempstead, 1875-1937
Courtesy of the University of Michigan Humanities Text Initiative American Verse Project.

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