CHORUS OF BIRDS We wish to declare how the Birds of the air all high Institutions designed, And holding in awe, art, science, and law, delivered the same to mankind. To begin with: of old Man went naked and cold whenever it pelted or froze, Till we showed him how feathers were proof against weathers; with that he bethought him of hose. And next it was plain that he in the rain was forced to sit dripping and blind, While the reed-warbler swung in a nest with her young, deep-sheltered and warm from the wind. So our homes in the boughs made him think of the house; and the swallow, to help him invent, Revealed the best way to economise clay, and bricks to combine with cement. The knowledge withal of the carpenter's awl is drawn from the nuthatch's bill, And the sand-marten's pains in the hazel-clad lanes instructed the mason to drill. Is there one of the arts more dear to men's hearts, to the birds' inspiration they owe it, For the nightingale first sweet music rehearsed, prima donna, composer, and poet. The owl's dark retreats showed sages the sweets of brooding to spin or unravel Fine webs in one's brain, philosophical, vain,-the swallows the pleasures of travel, Who chirped in such strain of Greece, Italy, Spain, and Egypt, that men, when they heard, Were mad to fly forth from their nests in the north, and follow the tail of the bird. Besides, it is true to our wisdom is due the knowledge of sciences all, And chiefly those rare Metaphysics of air men Meteorology call. For, indeed, it is said a kingfisher when dead has his science alive in him still; And, hung up, he will show how the wind means to blow, and turn to the point with his bill. And men in their words acknowledge the birds' erudition in weather and star; For they say, ""Twill be dry-the swallow is high;" or, "Rain-for the chough is afar." 'Twas the rooks who taught men vast pamphlets to pen upon Social Compact and Law, And Parliaments hold, as themselves did of old, exclaiming "Hear, hear," for "Caw, caw!" When they build, if one steal, so great is their zeal for justice, that all, at a pinch, Without legal test will demolish his nest, and hence is the trial by Lynch. And whence arose love? Go ask of the dove, or behold how the titmouse, unresting, Still early and late ever sings by his mate, to lighten her labours of nesting. Their bonds never gall, though the leaves shoot and fall, and the seasons roll round in their course, For their Marriage each year grows more lovely and dear, and they know not decrees of Divorce. That these things are Truth we have learned from our youth, for our hearts to our customs incline, As the rivers that roll from the fount of our soul, immortal, unchanging, divine. Man, simple and old, in his ages of gold, derived from our teaching true light, And deemed it his praise in his ancestors' ways to govern his footsteps aright. But the fountain of woes, Philosophy, rose, and what betwixt Reason and Whim, He has splintered our rules into sections and schools, so the world is made bitter for him. But the birds, since on earth they discovered the worth of their souls, and resolved, with a vow, No custom to change for a new or a strange have attained unto Paradise now. FREDERIC W. H. MYERS Born 1843 FROM "ST. PAUL” See, where a fireship in mid ocean blazes Then the sad ship, to her own funeral flaring, So when around me for my soul's affrighting, Thus, as I weary me, and long, and languish, Then let me feel how infinite around me Rush from the demons, for my King has found me, Leap from the universe and plunge in Thee! TENERIFFE Atlantid islands, phantom-fair, Throned on the solitary seas, The Holy Harbour fading far What sights had burning eve to show From Orotava's flowers! When Palma or Canary lay Cloud-cinctured in the crimson day- Those purple peaks 'twixt cloud and fire. |