Poems about butterflies often consider the small bug as a representation of a larger theme, like freedom or beauty. Others consider the creature as an independent life, analyzing what it might be thinking or feeling.
Many poets have chosen to look at the creature from a sympathetic or thoughtful view, considering what it does daily and how it might communicate with birds, flowers, and other insects. Butterflies are traditionally beautiful and fragile; this has led many of the best poets in the English language and around the world to depict the insects as symbols of femininity, childhood, freedom, dreams, and more.
Poets as different as Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson have written poems about butterflies, indicating the universal appeal of these small creatures and the ways that they have acted as poetic muses throughout time.
There are two poems by the title ‘To a Butterfly’ in William Wordsworth’s 1807 poetry collection, “Poems, in Two Volumes.” The first poem is the best-known in comparison to the latter one.
Written in 1801, ‘To A Butterfly’ is a two-stanza poem in which the speaker describes observing a butterfly. He speaks about where it sat, not knowing its habits, and the connection he feels between that creature and himself.
‘Two Butterflies went out at Noon—,’ by one of the greatest American poets, Emily Dickinson is a thought-provoking piece of art. It boundlessly captures the journey of two butterflies to eternity.
This is one of two wonderful Dickinson poems that speak about butterflies. ‘Two Butterflies went out at Noon—’ describes two butterflies taking flight together. She uses personification to depict their movements. She describes them as voyagers setting off upon a “shining sea” whose movements are not reported to her.
‘Blue-Butterfly Day’ by Robert Frost beautifully describes the movements of a flock of butterflies. He uses them as a way of describing the cycle of life and death.
This piece describes the movements of a flock of blue butterflies, their deaths, and reincorporation into the muddy April ground. Frost taps into important themes like life, death, beauty, and change in the very short lines of this butterfly poem.
It is blue-butterfly day here in spring,
And with these sky-flakes down in flurry on flurry
‘The Butterfly’ by Alice Freeman Palmer is one of the best poems concerning the beauty of a butterfly. This poem is a poetic longing for being like a butterfly, beautiful, and heavenly.
In this four-stanza poem, the speaker directs her words to a butterfly, something she refers to as an “Exquisite child of the air.” This metaphor is a lovely depiction of how this poet sees these insects. In the following lines, she celebrates the creature, loving how it allows her to think about her life differently.
‘From cocoon forth a butterfly,’ also known as ‘The Butterfly’s Day,’ is a beautiful poem written by the American poet Emily Dickinson. This poem presents the themes of the vanity of life and oblivion.
In ‘The Butterfly’s Day,’ Dickinson compares a butterfly to a woman. It emerged from a cocoon as a “lady from her door” into the “summer afternoon.” As the poem continues, readers have to work out whether or not the speaker is thinking about a butterfly or a woman.
‘Ode to a Butterfly’ by Thomas Wentworth Higginson is a thoughtful meditation on nature’s one of the daintiest creations, the butterfly. Higginson glorifies this tiny insect by using several metaphors and symbols.
‘Ode to a Butterfly' addresses the butterfly without using the word “butterfly.” The speaker spends the lines celebrating the butterfly’s beauty and freedom. Scholars have suggested that this poem is connected to the poet’s work as an activist for women’s rights and an abolitionist.
‘The Butterfly’ is a gentle but profound exploration of youth and innocence that shows Glück at her most subtle.
This poem is undoubtedly one of the most memorable poetic renderings of butterflies, even though the poem itself is more concerned with the children observing the butterfly than the insect itself. The butterfly's connotations with change are also relevant, as the children are on the cusp of developing a more critical approach to the world around them.
‘After Wings’ by Sarah Piatt is a short poem that centers on the wings of a butterfly. This poem highlights the importance of accepting change as it is the essence of life.
Sarah Piatt, a nineteenth and twentieth-century poet, wrote ‘After Wings’ (published 1915) to speak about what comes after learning to “wear/ Wings once.” And the need to keep them “fain,” “high and fair.” If one loses their wings, they’ll have to endure the pain of becoming a worm again.
‘The Butterfly and the Bee’ is a children’s poem written by the English poet William Lisle Bowles. This poem contrasts the life of a bee and that of a butterfly.
In the three stanzas of ‘The Butterfly and the Bee,’ the speaker describes a conversation he thought he overheard between a butterfly and a “laboring bee.” The butterfly speaks about the bee’s lack of colors, and the bee responds that colors are beneath his care. He thinks wearing colors is for “gaudy sloth[s].”
‘A Butterfly Talks’ is a children’s poem written by the American poet Annette Wynne. In this short poem, the poet emphasizes the splendor of simple things in nature.
‘A Butterfly Talks’ is a short poem in which the speaker describes a butterfly’s movements around flowers and how she understands the creature’s mind. She believes that he sees things that puzzle him and thinks “as well as some who write and read.”
‘The Butterfly’s Dream’ by Hannah Flagg Gould explores how excessive pride destroys oneself. To present this theme the poet presents an allegorical story of a butterfly and its dream.
‘The Butterfly’s Dream’ is a fairly long poem in which the speaker describes a butterfly’s actions, thoughts, and dreams. He speaks in his sleep, insults those he thinks he’s seeing, and finally dies.
The poem ‘Lepidoptera’ is a metaphorical representation of a mentally ill mind, likened to a broken butterfly wing. The poet is imploring society to support those with mental illness.
Richard de Zoysa uses the butterfly as a metaphor for the mind in his poem 'Lepidoptera.' He emphasizes the delicate and fragile nature of the human mind, highlighting the fleeting and transient nature of thoughts and emotions. By comparing the mind to a butterfly, de Zoysa conveys that just as a butterfly can be easily damaged, so too can the mind. This metaphor emphasizes the importance of treating the mind with care and compassion, especially when dealing with mental health issues.
On broken butterfly wing,
your crippled mind fluttered into my schoolroom. Failed. And died.
‘Milkweed’ by Helen Hunt Jackson is a sonnet concerning the beauty of the milkweed plant. Here the poet upholds the importance of humbleness and simplicity.
Despite the fact that the poet doesn’t mention the word “butterfly” until the poem is almost over, it’s clear from the start that she’s thinking about one, while also addressing and talking about the milkweed that the insect feeds on.
In this heartbreaking poem, Friedmann writes about the last butterfly he saw and uses it as a symbol for loss and approaching death during the Holocaust.
The butterfly is the center of the poem, both literally and symbolically. It is not just an insect flying away but a deeper sign of beauty, peace, and life outside the ghetto. The speaker treats it like the last piece of hope. Its short visit and final disappearance make it unforgettable. This poem is one of the most widely shared literary works about butterflies in the context of war, especially when teaching about symbolism and memory.
‘Kindness’ by Sylvia Plath examines the limits of superficial comforts through striking metaphors, questioning the effectiveness of kindness in alleviating deep emotional pain.
In 'Kindness,' butterflies symbolize fragile and transient beauty, as well as vulnerability. Plath mentions "my Japanese silks, desperate butterflies," which may evoke the delicate and sometimes desperate nature of human emotions and experiences. The reference to pinning them "any minute, anesthetized" suggests a loss of freedom and vitality, reflecting on the delicate balance between nurturing and overbearing aspects of kindness.
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