You've seen balloons set, haven'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.'