THE YELLOW VIOLET. 37 Yet slight thy form, and low thy seat, When loftier flowers are flaunting nigh. Oft, in the sunless April day, Thy early smile has stayed my walk; But midst the gorgeous blooms of May, I passed thee on thy humble stalk. So they, who climb to wealth, forget That I should ape the ways of pride. And when again the genial hour I'll not o'erlook the modest flower That made the woods of April bright. D INSCRIPTION FOR THE ENTRANCE TO A WOOD. STRANGER, if thou hast learned a truth which needs Is full of guilt and misery, and hast seen And view the haunts of Nature. The calm shade Of green and stirring branches is alive The squirrel, with raised paws and form erect, INSCRIPTION. Try their thin wings and dance in the warm beam green trees That sucks its sweets. The massy rocks themselves, Or bridge the sunken brook, and their dark roots, Sends forth glad sounds, and tripping o'er its bed 39 SONG. Soon as the glazed and gleaming snow Reflects the day-dawn cold and clear, The hunter of the west must go In depth of woods to seek the deer. His rifle on his shoulder placed, His stores of death arranged with skill, His moccasins and snow-shoes laced,Why lingers he beside the hill? Far, in the dim and doubtful light, And oft he turns his truant eye, And pauses oft, and lingers near; But when he marks the reddening sky, He bounds away to hunt the deer. TO A WATERFOW L. TO A WATERFOWL. WHITHER, midst falling dew, While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, Thy solitary way? Vainly the fowler's eye Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong, As, darkly painted on the crimson sky, Thy figure floats along. Seek'st thou the plashy brink Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide, There is a Power whose care Teaches thy way along that pathless coast,— The desert and illimitable air, Lone wandering, but not lost. 41 |