14 Butterfly Poems

Enjoy these butterfly poems. We all would like to bring butterflies into our gardens as they are beautiful and enchant us. As you read the verses of the poems may they remind you of the magic of the butterfly, and, it is our hope that the lessons of the butterfly remain with you. Butterflies add a magical awe to nature. Children and adults alike are amazed by the butterfly. 


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  1. Legend of the Butterfly
    Poet: Unknown


    Once as a child many years ago...
    on a balmy summer's eve.
    I sat in the yard at my Mother's side...
    and a butterfly lit at my sleeve.
    "It's a sign of good luck", my Mother said.
    As the butterfly stayed at my arm...
    "It's a symbol of all the beauty in life.
    Make sure you do it no harm."

    First butterflies are eggs and after they hatch...
    they see that their life's just beginning.
    They're content with their lot in life,
    so, they go out on a limb and start spinning.
    They stay out awhile in a magic cocoon....
    then emerge like flowers in spring.
    Then they share the story of their victory and success...
    through each of the colors of their wings.

    The gold in their wings is the "Golden Rule"...
    To follow that is a must.
    The blue....That means true blue.
    Always be someone people can trust.
    The green of the tip of their wing
    is saying Stay green, and you'll always grow.
    The silver is the lining in the clouds of doubt...
    that you must look for as you go through life.

    Butterflies bend with the wind, it's true.
    Still they get where they want to go.
    They arrive by persistence through their own insistence...
    A lesson more people should know.
    Sought and valued by the whole human race...
    For their beauty, tenacity and charm.
    If a butterfly ever chances to stay at your sleeve...
    remember, my friend, don't fight it, but,
    learn all you can from the butterfly clan.
    And you too, may become a rare item.


  2. Life Like A Butterfly
    Poet: Catherine Pulsifer

    We look and see the butterfly
    Its beauty seems to multiply
    When the sun hits it wings
    Amazing colors it does brings.

    Oh how fun it would be
    To be a butterfly so free
    But what I do not see
    Is the difficulties

    You see life is not easy
    It is not all dreamy
    The butterfly has struggles
    In the cocoon, there can be trouble.

    He must persevere to get out
    It is up to him he has no clout
    He must not give up
    If so, he will not develop

    Just like the life we live
    We must put life in perspective
    We all face challenges we must overcome
    And when we do life is awesome!

    So when you see the butterfly
    Remember for life you must apply
    The very best that you can be
    And you will find life to be happy.



  3. To A Butterfly
    Poet: Lady Fiora Hastings

    Butterfly, butterfly, brilliant and bright,
    How very often I envy your flight;
    I think I should like through the whole summer day.
    Like you, pretty insect, to flutter and play.

    Butterfly, butterfly, onward you fly —
    Now skimming so lowly, now rising so high.
    First on the jessamine, then on the rose.
    Then you will visit the pinks, I suppose.

    Now you are resting, pray let me come near;
    I will not hurt you, nor touch you, don't fear;
    Mamma says my hand is too heavy by far.
    To touch such little creatures as butterflies are.

    Now you are off again. Butterfly, stay;
    Don't fly away from me, butterfly, pray.
    Just let me look at your beautiful wings;
    Oh! it does not mind me, but upward it springs.



  4. Pretty Butterfly
    Poet: Althea Randolph

    Flitter, Flutter, go your wings,
    Pretty Butterfly;
    You will never play with me;
    Won't you tell me why?

    If I had a pair of wings
    On my back like you.
    Do you think you'd love me more?
    Tell me, is this true?



  5. The Butterfly
    Poet: Unknown

    Out in the garden, wee Elsie
    Was gathering flowers for me;
    Oh, mamma,' she cried, hurry, hurry,
    Here's something I want you to see."

    I went to the window; before her
    A velvet-winged butterfly flew,
    And the pansies themselves were not brighter
    Than the beautiful creature in hue.

    Oh! isn't it pretty? cried Elsie,
    With eager and wondering eyes,
    As she watched it soar lazily upward
    Against the soft blue of the skies.

    I know what it is, don't you, mamma?
    (Oh! the wisdom of these little things,
    When the soul of the poet is in them!)
    It's a pansy — a pansy with wings.



  6. Yellow Butterflies
    Poet: Nixon Waterman

    Do you remember, sister dear, the golden summers long ago.
    When you and I through happy fields so gladly wandered to and fro?
    Do you recall the dewy morns we loitered on our way to school
    To watch the butterflies that danced about the margin of the pool?

    We loved the green of hill and vale, we loved the blue that bent above;
    The brooks, the birds, the whispering woods, yet more than these we seemed to love -
    More than the pale wild-rose, half hid beneath the hedges dark and cool -
    The yellow butterflies that danced about the margin of the pool.

    Oh, long the paths of life and long the tender, clinging dreams of youth.
    But truth leads up to beauty still, and beauty still leads up to truth.
    And in our memories we hold, through all of life's dull book and rule,
    The yellow butterflies that danced about the margin of the pool.



  7. Butterfly Wishes
    Poet: Unknown

    Yesterday a butterfly
    Came floating gently through the sky.
    He soared up through the atmosphere
    Then drifted close enough to hear.

    I said, “I’d love to fly with you
    And sail around the way you do.
    It looks like it would be such fun
    To fly up toward the summer sun.

    But I have not your graceful charm.
    I haven’t wings, just these two arms.
    I’ve been designed to walk around.
    My human feet must touch the ground.

    Then magically he spoke to me
    And told me what his wish would be.

    He said, “What I’d love most to do
    Is walk upon God’s Earth with you,
    To squish it’s mud between my toes
    Or touch my finger to my nose.

    I’d love just once to walk around
    With human feet to touch the ground,
    But I have not two legs that swing,
    I haven’t arms, just these two wings.”

    And so we went our separate ways
    In wonder and surprise.
    For we’d both seen God’s precious gifts
    Through someone else’s eyes.



  8. there is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly Richard Buckminster Fuller


  9. After Wings
    Poet: Sallie M. B. Piatt

    This was your butterfly, you see,
    His fine wings made him vain:
    The caterpillars crawl, but he
    Passed them in rich disdain.
    My pretty boy says, “Let him be
    Only a worm again!”

    O child, when things have learned to wear
    Wings once, they must be fain
    To keep them always high and fair:
    Think of the creeping pain
    Which even a butterfly must bear
    To be a worm again!



  10. A Butterfly
    Poet: William Wordsworth

    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!

    This plot of orchard-ground is ours;
    My trees they are, my Sister’s flowers;
    Here rest your wings when they are weary;
    Here lodge as in a sanctuary!
    Come often to us, fear no wrong;
    Sit near us on the bough!
    We’ll talk of sunshine and of song,
    And summer days, when we were young;
    Sweet childish days, that were as long
    As twenty days are now.



  11. Go Fluttering By
    Poet: Unknown

    Butterflies go fluttering by
    On colored wings that catch the eye.
    On wings of orange, and silvery blue,
    On wings of golden yellow, too.

    Butterflies float in the air,
    Making their homes most anywhere:
    The rainforest, field, and prairie land,
    On mountaintops, and desert sand.

    If winter brings the cold and snow,
    To warmer climates, off they go!
    Returning home the following spring,
    Beautiful butterflies on the wing!



  12. An Example
    Poet: William H. Davies

    Here’s an example from
    A Butterfly;
    That on a rough, hard rock
    Happy can lie;
    Friendless and all alone
    On this unsweetened stone.

    Now let my bed be hard,
    No care take I;
    I’ll make my joy like this
    Small Butterfly;
    Whose happy heart has power
    To make a stone a flower.



  13. From Cocoon forth a Butterfly
    Poet: Emily Dickinson

    From cocoon forth a butterfly
    As lady from her door
    Emerged -a summer afternoon -
    Repairing everywhere,

    Without design, that I could trace,
    Except to stray abroad
    On miscellaneous enterprise
    The clovers understood.

    Her pretty parasol was seen
    Contracting in a field
    Where men made hay, then struggling hard
    With an opposing cloud,

    Where parties, phantom as herself,
    To Nowhere seemed to go
    In purposeless circumference,
    As ’twere a tropic show.

    And not withstanding bee that worked,
    And flower that zealous blew,
    This audience of idleness
    Disdained them, from the sky,

    Till sundown crept, a steady tide,
    And men that made the hay,
    And afternoon, and butterfly,
    Extinguished in its sea.



  14. Life Can Be Beautiful
    Poet: Catherine Pulsifer

    A child sees a butterfly
    And runs to catch it as it goes by
    And if they catch they are in delight
    They hold it gently not to tight.

    But as the years go by
    When we see a butterfly
    We appreciate the beauty, the colors we see
    We admire but allow the butterfly to be free.

    We understand the struggle they have had
    And just seeing them makes us glad.
    Our life is like a butterfly
    Struggles we have had we don't deny.

    But like the butterfly we experience
    Struggles and choices that make a difference
    But if we overcome and stay faithful
    Like the butterfly, life can be beautiful.



  15. How Butterflies Are Born
    Poet: Victor Hugo

    The dawn is smiling on the dew that covers
    The tearful roses - lo! the little lovers -
    That kiss the buds and all the flutterings
    In jasmine bloom, and privet, of white wings
    That go and come, and fly, and peep, and hide
    With muffled music, murmured far and wide!
    Ah, Springtime, when we think of all the lays
    That dreamy lovers send to dreamy Mays,
    Of the proud hearts within a billet bound,
    Of all the soft silk paper that men wound.
    The messages of love that mortals write.
    Filled with intoxication of delight.
    Written in April, and before the Maytime
    Shredded and flown, playthings for the winds' playtime,
    We dream that all white butterflies above.
    Who seek through clouds or waters souls to love.
    And leave their lady mistress to despair.
    To flirt with flowers, as tender and more fair,
    Are but torn love-letters, that through the skies
    Flutter, and float, and change to butterflies.

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Featured Famous Poets:

Catherine Pulsifer
Catherine Pulsifer

Althea Randolph
Althea Randolph

Nixon Waterman
Nixon Waterman

Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson


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We hope you enjoy the wisdom that each butterfly poem has to offer. Also, may the verses help you see how something so ordinary (a caterpillar) becomes so extraordinary (a butterfly). And may the life of a butterfly be an inspiration to you - they appear so beautiful yet they struggle to become this.  Making their way out of the cocoon is not an easy task, Yet they persevere and overcome the challenges to turn into this beautiful butterfly! Be like the butterfly, overcome your challenges, persevere and amazing things will happen in your life!




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