. Bards and the birds; . VOLHYNIA l8l And those sunlit-wings and flashing White breasts, to their tear-dimmed eyes Bring visions of white child-angelsFloating in Paradise. And again to the sounds they hearken,Which grew silent while incomplete, The music of childish laughter,The patter of baby feet. Till the hearts which are barren and childless,The homes which are empty and cold : The nests, whence the young have departed,Are filled with young life as of old. Thus each spring, to those peasant mothers,Comes the old Past again and again; And those sad hearts quicken and blossomIn a rapture of
. Bards and the birds; . VOLHYNIA l8l And those sunlit-wings and flashing White breasts, to their tear-dimmed eyes Bring visions of white child-angelsFloating in Paradise. And again to the sounds they hearken,Which grew silent while incomplete, The music of childish laughter,The patter of baby feet. Till the hearts which are barren and childless,The homes which are empty and cold : The nests, whence the young have departed,Are filled with young life as of old. Thus each spring, to those peasant mothers,Comes the old Past again and again; And those sad hearts quicken and blossomIn a rapture of sorrowless pain. LEWIS MORRIS. l82 BARDS AND THE BIRDS From « EVANGELINE Oft in the barns they climbed to the populous nests on the rafters,Seeking with eager eyes that wondrous stone, which the swallowBrings from the shore of the sea to restore the sight of its fledglings ;Lucky was he who found that stone in the nest of the swallow ! LONGFELLOW. From UNDER THE WILLOWSThe thin-winged swallow skating on the air. The thin-winged Swallow skating on the air. Lowell. POSTHUMOUS TALES 183 From AURORA LEIGH So silent, that you heard a young bird fallFrom the top-nest in the neighbouring rookeryThrough edging over-rashly toward the old rooks had already fled too far,To hear the screech they fled with, though you sawSome flying on still, hke scatterings of dead leavesIn autumn-gusts, seen dark against the sky. ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING. From POSTHUMOUS TALES. No. 10. . lead me to the west,Where grew the elm-trees thick and tall, Where rooks unnumberd build their nest—Deliberate birds, and prudent all: Their notes, indeed, are harsh and rude, But theyre a social multitude. CRABBE. 184 BARDS AND THE BIRDS / From <ROKEBY / / Hoarse into middle air arose The vespers of the roosting crows. SCOTT. /From MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM ACT III. SCENP: II. Puck. . .... As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye,Or russet-pa ted choughs, many in sort,Rising and cawing at the gu
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirdsin, bookyear1894
