THE BLACK BIRD. O BLACKBIRD! sing me something well: While all the neighbors shoot thee round, I keep smooth plats of fruitful ground, Where thou may'st warble, eat and dwell. The espaliers and the standards all Are thine; the range of lawn and park: The unnetted blackhearts ripen dark, All thine, against the garden wall. Yet, though I spared thee kith and kin, A golden bill! the silver tongue, Plenty corrupts the melody That made thee famous once, when young: And in the sultry garden-squares, Now thy flute-notes are changed to coarse, I hear thee not at all, or hoarse As when a hawker hawks his wares. Take warning! he that will not sing THE DEATH OF THE OLD YEAR. J. FULL knee-deep lies the winter snow, And tread softly and speak low, Old year, you must not die; II. He lieth still: he doth not move : He hath no other life above. He gave me a friend, and a true true-love, And the New-year will take 'em away. THE DEATH OF THE OLD YEAR. 193 Old year, you must not go; So long as you have been with us, Old year, you shall not go. III. He frothed his bumpers to the brim; But though his eyes are waxing dim, Old year, you shall not die; We did so laugh and cry with you, Old year, if you must die. IV. He was full of joke and jest, But all his merry quips are o'er. To see him die, across the waste His son and heir doth ride post-haste, But he'll be dead before. Every one for his own. The night is starry and cold, my friend, And the New-year, blithe and bold, my friend, V. How hard he breathes! over the snow I heard just now the crowing cock. The cricket chirps: the light burns low: Shake hands, before you die. Old year, we 'll dearly rue for you: Speak out before you die. VI. His face is growing sharp and thin. Close up his eyes : tie up his chin: Step from the corpse, and let him in That standeth there alone, And waiteth at the door. There's a new foot on the floor, my friend, |