Anyone know where I can find Robert Hillyer's poem "The Victim"?
Ends with the lines

"The visionary hummingbird
Hit nothingness, and hit it hard."

Thanks,
Odys

There are a lot of Hillyer poems here [www.sonnets.org]. That poem doesn't seem to be there, though.

pam

Here is some more reading material by Robert Hillyer..


The Five Books of Youth, by Robert Hillyer
[ibiblio.org];

You provided me with the Author's name, thanx ! Here's the full poem:

The Victim

The hummingbird that darts and hovers
Made one fatal dart -- alas ! --
Against a counterfeit of flowers
Reflected in the window glass.
When four-o'-clocks had sunk in shadow,
The window caught an extra glint
Of colour, like the sudden rainbow
Arching the purple firmament.
Transcendent are the traceries
Illusion weaves to set a snare;
The quick competitor of bees,
Trusting his universe of air
For flight and honey dazzled so
In quest of sweetness, was waylaid
By something hard that had a glow
Brighter that that the garden made.
Illusion shatters; the ideal
Is much more ruthless than the real.
The visionary hummingbird
Hit nothingness, and hit it hard.