To 'Bromus,' on Fremont's Peak

Yellow-coated little Hero!
        Bold explorer of the hills!
        Do you look for daffodils,
    Lily-blooms, and purple flags—
With the mercury at zero—
    On these barren, icy crags?

What has sent you, lonely Rover,
        Far away from meadow slopes,
        Columbine and heliotropes?
    Reveler in sunny light,
And the sunny banks of clover,
    Why your wild and weary flight?

Is it possible Ambition
        Harbors in your little soul,
        Eager for the highest goal — 
    Doing what no other can? 
Pretty, miniature edition
    Of the sateless heart of man !

"Humble?" so I hear you cited; 
        But, between yourself and me, 
        Boy! if you’re a humble-bee 
    I have not the wit to guess 
Where a proud one would have 'lighted, 
    In our little wilderness !

But I may divine what meaneth 
        This my witty fellow speaks,
        Up among the chilly peaks; 
    That a steady, sunward flight, 
Though it may not split the zenith, 
    Finds a very noble hight ;

That the Eagle and the Vulture
        Are not all who mount the sky 
        So "unutterably high;" 
    But that any little chap 
May, if true to pith and culture, 
    Put that feather in his cap !