MARY HOWITT. HE Woodpecker green he has not his abiding light are hiding; Where the bright mountain-streams glide on The dark water-ousel may warble and play; In those depths of the wood there is much to be seen. There the wild-rose and woodbine weave fairy-land bowers, And the moth-mullein grows with its pale yellow flowers ; Hark! hear you that laughter so loud and so long?— Again now!—it drowneth the wood-linnet's song! 'Tis the Woodpecker laughing!--the comical elf! His soul must be merry to laugh to himself!— And now we are nearer-speak low-be not heard! Though he's merry at heart he's a shy, timid bird. Hark !-now he is tapping the old, hollow tree :One step farther on-now look upward—that's he! Oh, the exquisite bird !—with his downward-hung head. With his richly dyed greens-his pale yellow and red! On the gnarled tree-trunk with its sober-toned gray, What a beautiful mingling of colours are they! Ah, the words you have spoken have frightened the birdFor by him the lowest of whispers were heard; Or a footfall as light as the breezes, that pass Scarcely bending the flowers, he perceives on the grass. |