The Balloon

YOU’ve seen balloons set, have n’t you?

      So stately they ascend

It is as swans discarded you

      For duties diamond.

Their liquid feet go softly out

      Upon a sea of blond;

They spurn the air as ’t were too mean

      For creatures so renowned.

Their ribbons just beyond the eye,

      They struggle some for breath,

And yet the crowd applauds below;

      They would not encore death.

The gilded creature strains and spins,

      Trips frantic in a tree,

Tears open her imperial veins

      And tumbles in the sea.

The crowd retire with an oath

      The dust in streets goes down,

And clerks in counting-rooms observe,

      ‘’T was only a balloon.’