I've watched you now a full half-hour; Self-poised upon that yellow flower And, little Butterfly! Indeed I know not if you sleep or feed. How motionless! - not frozen seas More motionless! and then What joy awaits you, when the breeze Hath found you out among the trees, And calls you forth again!

These lines come from Wordsworth’s short lyric “To a Butterfly,” one of his nature poems in which close observation of a small creature becomes an occasion for reflection. Written in the early Romantic period, the poem exemplifies Wordsworth’s characteristic practice of lingering over an ordinary scene—here, a butterfly resting on a flower—and allowing the mind to move from sensory detail to feeling and meditation. The speaker addresses the insect directly, recording its stillness and imagining its inner state, then anticipates the moment when a breeze will rouse it back into motion. The tone is gentle, intimate, and contemplative, typical of Wordsworth’s conversational address to the natural world.

The passage contrasts apparent stasis with the promise of renewed life. The butterfly’s “motionless” poise invites the speaker to question whether it is sleeping or feeding, underscoring how nature’s processes can be opaque to human understanding. Yet the stillness is not death (“not frozen seas”), but a temporary pause before the breeze “calls you forth again.” Wordsworth turns a minute observation into a meditation on responsiveness: life may appear quiet or suspended, but it remains poised for awakening when conditions change. The address “little Butterfly!” conveys affection and wonder, suggesting that joy and vitality are latent even in moments of rest.