Poems
The Humming-Bird
The humming-bird! the humming-bird!
So fairy-like 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 humming-birds
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 humming-bird,
Within the ancient wood —
Her nest of silky 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 humming-bird,
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!
So fairy-like 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 humming-birds
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 humming-bird,
Within the ancient wood —
Her nest of silky 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 humming-bird,
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!
Analysis (ai): The poem centers on the hummingbird as a symbol of perpetual warmth, beauty, and natural abundance, contrasting it with colder, barren climates. Natural imagery—flowers, rivers, tropical forests—constructs an idyllic, almost Edenic environment.
- Tone and Diction: The diction is celebratory and exclamatory, using repetition and simile to emphasize wonder. Phrases like “fairy-like and bright” and “living fires” enhance a sense of lightness and vibrancy without resorting to melancholy or moralizing.
- Cultural and Geographic Framing: Exoticism shapes the poem’s perspective, portraying South American and Caribbean ecosystems as distant, lush paradises. This aligns with 19th-century European fascination with imperial geography and natural wonders abroad.
- Connection to Author’s Work: Unlike many of the author’s moral or didactic poems, this piece abstains from overt religious or social instruction, focusing instead on aesthetic appreciation—a rarer mode in her broader corpus.
- Place in Literary Context: Typical of Romantic-era nature poetry, it idealizes non-European landscapes, yet avoids the sublime darkness common in contemporaries like Coleridge or Wordsworth. Its focus remains fixed on delight and stability.
- Form and Rhythm: Simple quatrains with ABCB rhyme and a predominantly iambic meter create a lilting, song-like cadence, mimicking the hummingbird’s flight and reinforcing its delicate presence.
- Less-Discussed Angle: The poem subtly reinforces imperial comfort by depicting colonized regions as eternally fertile and unchanging—spaces free of human conflict or ecological decay, serving as passive backdrops for European aesthetic pleasure.
Mary Howitt
(1799 – 1888)
Mary Howitt
(12 March 1799 – 30 January 1888) was an English writer, editor, translator and a pioneer of the women’s rights movement in the UK. She is most known as the author of the famous poem The Spider and the Fly. She translated several works by Hans Christian Andersen and Frederika Bremer. Some of her works were written in conjunction with her husband, William Howitt. Many, in verse and prose, were intended for young people.
