GRAHAME.

ESS loud, but not less clear, His humbler works Proclaim his power; the Swallow knows her time,

And, on the vernal breezes, wings her way,
O'er mountain, plain, and far-extending seas,
From Afric's torrid sands to Britain shore.
Before the cuckoo's note, she, twittering, gay,
Skims 'long the brook, or o'er the brnshwood tops,
When dance the midgy clouds in warping maze
Confused: 'tis thus, by her, the air is swept
Of insect myriads, that would else infest
The greenwood walk, blighting each rural joy :
For this, if pity plead in vain,—O, spare

Her clay-built home! Her all, her young, she trusts,
Trusts to the power of man: fearful, herself
She never trusts; free, on the summer morn,
She, at his window, hails the rising sun.-
Twice seven days she broods; then on the wing,
From morn to dewy eve, unceasing plies,
Save when she feeds or cherishes her young;
And oft she's seen, beneath her little porch,

Clinging supine, to deal the air-gleaned food.

From her the husbandman the coming shower
Foretells Along the mead closely she skiffs,
Or o'er the streamlet pool she skims, so near,
That, from her dipping wing, the wavy circlets
Spread to the shore; then fall the single drops,
Prelusive of the shower.

The Martins, too,

The dwellers in the ruined castle wall,
When low'rs the sky a flight less lofty wheel.

Presageful of the thunder peal, when deep

A boding silence broods o'er all the vale,

From airy altitudes they stoop, and fly

Swiftly, with shrillest scream, round and around

The rugged battlements; or fleetly dart

Through loopholes, whence the shaft was wont to glance;

Or thrid the window of the lofty bower,

Where hapless royalty, with care-closed eyes,

Woo'd sleep in vain, foreboding what befel,-
The loss of friends, of country, freedom, life!

Long ere the wintry gusts, with chilly sweep, Sigh through the leafless groves, the swallow tribes, Heaven-warned, in airy bevies congregate,

Or clustering sit, as if in deep consult

What time to launch; but, lingering, they wait,
Until the feeble of the latest broods

Have gathered strength, the sea-ward path to brave.

At last the farewell twitter spreading sounds,