To warm her young, and to teach them to spring At once o'er the waves on their stormy wing! Over the deep! over the deep! Where the whale, and the shark, and the swordfish sleep, Outflying the blast, and the driving rain,\ For the mariner curseth the warning bird, THE PARROT AND THE WREN. A CONTRAST. Wordsworth. WITHIN her gilded cage confined, I saw a dazzling belle, A Parrot of that famous kind, Whose name was "Nonpareil." Like beads of glossy jet her eyes; And, smooth'd by Nature's skill, With pearl or gleaming agate vies Her finely-curvéd bill. Her plumy mantle's living hues, And, sooth to say, an apter mate But, exiled from Australian bowers, And singleness her lot, She trills her song with tutor❜d powers, Or mocks each casual note. No more of pity for regrets With which she may have striven; But now in wantonness she frets, Or spite, if cause be given. Arch, volatile, a sportive bird, Ambitious to be dr seen or heard, And pleased to be admired. This moss-lined shed, green, soft, and dry, Not shunning man's abode, though shy, Strange places, coverts unendear'd, She never tried; the very nest In which this child of Spring was rear'd, Is warm'd through winter by her feathery breast. To the bleak winds she sometimes gives That tells the Hermitess still lives, Though she appear not, and be sought in vain. Say, Dora! tell me by yon placid moon, If call'd to choose between the favour'd pair, Which would you be,- the bird of the saloon, By ladies' fingers tended with nice care, Caress'd, applauded, upon dainties fed,— Or Nature's darling of this mossy shed? THE SWALLOW PEOPLE. Thomson. WHEN Autumn scatters his departing gleams, Or rather into warmer climes convey'd, With other kindred birds of season, there The stork assembly meets; for many a day wings, And many a circle, many a short essay, Wheel'd round and round, in congregation fell The figured flight ascends, and, riding high The aërial billows, mixes with the clouds. SINGING BIRDS. Ben Jonson. HARK! how each bough a several music yields; Accord in tune, though vary in their tale. |