An August Evening, 1865 Poem by Carolyn Clive

THE lightest air that ever flew
Unheard across the summer's blue,
The lightest burthen bore on high,
That e'er went wingless through the sky.
It was a downy feather, shed
From some bird's breast while past it fled;
A swallow darting on its way,
With others and itself at play,
Caught in mid air the floating guest,
And bore it off to help her nest.
That's all, there's nothing more, no moral;
But, reader, not for that we'll quarrel.
'Twas something charming to the eye,
I cannot tell the how or why;
But Nature is so lovely fair,
That every hour and every where,
The soul some pleasantness can gather,
As from the swallow and the feather.