For this outrage, the poor bird Say a thousand mournful things To the wind, which, on its wings, To the Guardian of the sky Bore her melancholy cry, Bore her tender tears.
She spake As if her fond heart would break: One while in a sad, sweet note, Gurgled from her straining throat, She enforced her piteous tale, Mournful prayer and plaintive wail; One while, with the shrill dispute Quite outwearied, she was mute; Then afresh, for her dear brood, Her harmonious shrieks renewed. Now she winged it round and round; Now she skimmed along the ground; Now from bough to bough, in haste, The delighted robber chased, And, alighting in his path, Seemed to say, 'twixt grief and wrath, "Give me back, fierce rustic rude, Give me back my pretty brood," And I heard the rustic still Answer, "That I never will."
His nimble hand's instinct then taught each
A capering cheerfulness, and made them sing To their own dance; now negligently rash He throws his arm, and with a long-drawn dash Blends all together; then distinctly trips From this to that, then quick returning skips, And snatches this again, and pauses there. She measures every measure, everywhere Meets art with art; sometimes, as if in doubt Not perfect yet, and fearing to be out, Trails her plain ditty in one long-spun note, Through the sleek passage of her open throat, A clear, unwrinkled song; then doth she point it With tender accents, and severely joint it By short diminutives, that being reared In controverting warbles, evenly shared, With her sweet self she wrangles: he, amazed That from so small a channel should be raised The torrent of a voice whose melody Could melt into such sweet variety, Strains higher yet, that, tickled with rare art, The tattling strings, each breathing in his part, Most kindly do fall out: the grumbling bass In surly groans disdains the treble's grace;
ESTEVAN MANUEL DE VILLEGAS (Spanish). The high-percht treble chirps at this, and chides,
Translation of THOMAS ROSCOE.
Now westward Sol had spent the richest beams Of noon's high glory, when, hard by the streams Of Tiber, on the scene of a green plat, Under protection of an oak, there sat A sweet lute's-master, in whose gentle airs He lost the day's heat and his own hot cares. Close in the covert of the leaves there stood A nightingale, come from the neighboring wood (The sweet inhabitant of each glad tree, Their muse, their siren, harmless siren she): There stood she listening, and did entertain The music's soft report, and mould the same In her own murmurs; that whatever mood His curious fingers lent, her voice made good. The man perceived his rival, and her art; Disposed to give the light-foot lady sport, Awakes his lute, and 'gainst the fight to come Informs it in a sweet præludium
Of closer strains, and e'er the war begin, He lightly skirmishes on every string
Until his finger (moderator) hides
And closes the sweet quarrel, rousing all, Hoarse, shrill, at once; as when the trumpets call Hot Mars to the harvest of death's field, and woo Men's hearts into their hands; this lesson too She gives them back; her supple breast thrills out Sharp airs, and staggers in a warbling doubt Of dallying sweetness, hovers o'er her skill, And folds in waved notes, with a trembling bill, The pliant series of her slippery song; Then starts she suddenly into a throng Of short thick sobs, whose thundering volleys float, And roll themselves over her lubric throat In panting murmurs, stilled out of her breast; That ever-bubbling spring, the sugared nest Of her delicious soul, that there does lie Bathing in streams of liquid melody; Music's best seed-plot; when in ripened airs A golden-headed harvest fairly rears His honey-dropping tops ploughed by her breath Which there reciprocally laboreth.
In that sweet soil it seems a holy quire, Sounded to the name of great Apollo's lyre; Whose silver roof rings with the sprightly notes Of sweet-lipped angel-imps, that swill their throats In cream of morning Helicon, and then
Charged with a flying touch; and straightway she Prefer soft anthems to the ears of men,
Carves out her dainty voice as readily Into a thousand sweet distinguished tones, And reckons up in soft divisions
Quick volumes of wild notes, to let him know, By that shrill taste, she could do something too.
To woo them from their beds, still murmuring That men can sleep while they their matins sing (Most divine service), whose so early lay Prevents the eyelids of the blushing day. There might you hear her kindle her soft voice
In the close murmur of a sparkling noise; And lay the groundwork of her hopeful song, Still keeping in the forward stream so long, Till a sweet whirlwind (striving to get out) Heaves her soft bosom, wanders round about, And makes a pretty earthquake in her breast, Till the fledged notes at length forsake their nest, Fluttering in wanton shoals, and to the sky, Winged with their own wild echoes, prattling fly. She opes the floodgate, and lets loose a tide Of streaming sweetness, which in state doth ride On the waved back of every swelling strain, Rising and falling in a pompous train ; And while she thus discharges a shrill peal Of flashing airs, she qualifies their zeal With the cool epode of a graver note; Thus high, thus low, as if her silver throat Would reach the brazen voice of war's hoarse bird; Her little soul is ravished, and so poured Into loose ecstasies, that she is placed Above herself, music's enthusiast.
Shame now and anger mixed a double stain In the musician's face: "Yet, once again, Mistress, I come: now reach a strain, my lute, Above her mock, or be forever mute. Or tune a song of victory to me,
Or to thyself sing thine own obsequy.” So said, his hands sprightly as fire he flings, And with a quavering coyness tastes the strings. The sweet-lipped sisters musically frighted, Singing their fears are fearfully delighted; Trembling as when Apollo's golden hairs Are fanned and frizzled in the wanton airs Of his own breath, which, married to his lyre, Doth tune the spheres, and make heaven's self look higher;
From this to that, from that to this he flies, Feels music's pulse in all her arteries; Caught in a net which there Apollo spreads, His fingers struggle with the vocal threads, Following those little rills, he sinks into A sea of Helicon; his hand does go Those parts of sweetness which with nectar drop, Softer than that which pants in Hebe's cup. The humorous strings expound his learned touch By various glosses; now they seem to grutch And murmur in a buzzing din, then jingle In shrill-toned accents striving to be single; Every smooth turn, every delicious stroke Gives life to some new grace; thus doth he invoke Sweetness by all her names; thus, bravely thus (fraught with a fury so harmonious) The lute's light genius now does proudly rise, Heaved on the surges of swoll'n rhapsodies; Whose flourish (meteor-like) doth curl the air With flash of high-born fancies, here and there Dancing in lofty measures, and anon Creeps on the soft touch of a tender tone,
Whose trembling murmurs, melting in wild airs, Run to and fro, complaining his sweet cares; Because those precious mysteries that dwell In music's ravished soul he dare not tell, But whisper to the world; thus do they vary, Each string his note, as if they meant to carry Their master's blest soul (snatched out at his ears By a strong ecstasy) through all the spheres Of music's heaven; and seat it there on high, In the empyrean of pure harmony. At length (after so long, so loud a strife Of all the strings, still breathing the best life Of blest variety, attending on His fingers' fairest evolution,
In many a sweet rise, many as sweet a fall) A full-mouthed diapason swallows all.
This done, he lists what she would say to this; And she, although her breath's late exercise Had dealt too roughly with her tender throat, Yet summons all her sweet powers for a note. Alas! in vain! for while (sweet soul) she tries To measure all those wild diversities Of chattering strings, by the small size of one Poor simple voice, raised in a natural tone; She fails, and failing grieves, and grieving dies: She dies, and leaves her life the victor's prize, Falling upon his lute: 0, fit to have (That lived so sweetly), dead, so sweet a grave!
FROM "THE PELICAN ISLAND."
BIRDS, the free tenants of land, air, and ocean, Their forms all symmetry, their motions grace; In plumage, delicate and beautiful,
Thick without burden, close as fishes' scales, Or loose as full-blown poppies to the breeze; With wings that might have had a soul within them,
They bore their owners by such sweet enchantment, Birds, small and great, of endless shapes and colors,
Here flew and perched, there swam and dived at pleasure;
Watchful and agile, uttering voices wild And harsh, yet in accordance with the waves Upon the beach, the winds in caverns moaning, Or winds and waves abroad upon the water. Some sought their food among the finny shoals, Swift darting from the clouds, emerging soon With slender captives glittering in their beaks; These in recesses of steep crags constructed Their eyries inaccessible, and trained Their hardy broods to forage in all weathers: Others, more gorgeously apparelled, dwelt Among the woods, on nature's dainties feeding,
Herbs, seeds, and roots; or, ever on the wing, Pursuing insects through the boundless air: In hollow trees or thickets these concealed Their exquisitely woven nests; where lay Their callow offspring, quiet as the down On their own breasts, till from her search the dam With laden bill returned, and shared the meal Among her clamorous suppliants, all agape; Then, cowering o'er them with expanded wings, She felt how sweet it is to be a mother. Of these, a few, with melody untaught, Turned all the air to music within hearing, Themselves unseen; while bolder quiristers On loftiest branches strained their clarion-pipes, And made the forest echo to their screams Discordant, yet there was no discord there, But tempered harmony; all tones combining, In the rich confluence of ten thousand tongues, To tell of joy and to inspire it. Who Could hear such concert, and not join in chorus? Not I. JAMES MONTGOMERY.
FROM THE PELICAN ISLAND."
AT early dawn I marked them in the sky, Catching the morning colors on their plumes; Not in voluptuous pastime revelling there, Among the rosy clouds, while orient heaven Flamed like the opening gates of Paradise, Whence issued forth the angel of the sun, And gladdened nature with returning day : - Eager for food, their searching eyes they fixed On ocean's unrolled volume, from an height That brought immensity within their scope; Yet with such power of vision looked they down, As though they watched the shell-fish slowly gliding
O'er sunken rocks, or climbing trees of coral. On indefatigable wing upheld,
Love found that lonely couple on their isle, And soon surrounded them with blithe companions.
The noble birds, with skill spontaneous, framed A nest of reeds among the giant-grass, That waved in lights and shadows o'er the soil. There, in sweet thraldom, yet unweening why, The patient dam, who ne'er till now had known Parental instinct, brooded o'er her eggs, Long ere she found the curious secret out, That life was hatching in their brittle shells. Then, from a wild rapacious bird of prey, Tamed by the kindly process, she became That gentlest of all living things, a mother; Gentlest while yearning o'er her naked young, Fiercest when stirred by anger to defend them. Her mate himself the softening power confessed, Forgot his sloth, restrained his appetite, And ranged the sky and fished the stream for her. Or, when o'erwearied Nature forced her off To shake her torpid feathers in the breeze, And bathe her bosom in the cooling flood, He took her place, and felt through every nerve, While the plump nestlings throbbed against his
The tenderness that makes the vulture mild; Yea, half unwillingly his post resigned, When, homesick with the absence of an hour, She hurried back, and drove him from her seat With pecking bill and cry of fond distress, Answered by him with murmurs of delight, Whose gutturals harsh to her were love's own music.
Then, settling down, like foam upon the wave,.
Breath, pulse, existence, seemed suspended in White, flickering, effervescent, soon subsiding,
They were as pictures painted on the sky;
Till suddenly, aslant, away they shot,
Her ruffled pinions smoothly she composed; And, while beneath the comfort of her wings, Her crowded progeny quite filled the nest,
Like meteors changed from stars to gleams of The halcyon sleeps not sounder, when the wind
And struck upon the deep, where, in wild play, Their quarry floundered, unsuspecting harm ; With terrible voracity, they plunged Their heads among the affrighted shoals, and beat A tempest on the surges with their wings,
Till flashing clouds of foam and spray concealed them.
Nimbly they seized and secreted their prey, Alive and wriggling in the elastic net,
Is breathless, and the sea without a curl, - Nor dreams the halcyon of serener days, Or nights more beautiful with silent stars, Than, in that hour, the mother pelican, When the warm tumults of affection sunk Into calm sleep, and dreams of what they were, Dreams more delicious than reality.
-He sentinel beside her stood, and watched With jealous eye the raven in the clouds, And the rank sea-mews wheeling round the cliffs.
Which Nature hung beneath their grasping beaks, Woe to the reptile then that ventured nigh î
The snap of his tremendous bill was like Death's scythe, down cutting everything it
The heedless lizard, in his gambols, peeped Upon the guarded nest, from out the flowers, But paid the instant forfeit of his life; Nor could the serpent's subtlety elude Capture, when gliding by, nor in defence Might his malignant fangs and venom save him.
Erelong the thriving brood outgrew their cradle,
Ran through the grass, and dabbled in the pools;
No sooner denizens of earth than made Free both of air and water; day by day, New lessons, exercises, and amusements Employed the old to teach, the young to learn. Now floating on the blue lagoon behold them; The sire and dam in swan-like beauty steering, Their eyguets following through the foamy wake, Picking the leaves of plants, pursuing insects, Or catching at the bubbles as they broke : Till on some minor fry, in reedy shallows, With flapping pinions and unsparing beaks, The well-taught scholars plied their double art, To fish in troubled waters, and secure The petty captives in their maiden pouches; Then hurried with their banquet to the shore, With feet, wings, breast, half swimming and half flying.
But when their pens grew strong to fight the
And buffet with the breakers on the reef, The parents put them to severer proof; On beetling rocks the little ones were mar- shalled;
There, by endearments, stripes, example, urged To try the void convexity of heaven, And plough the ocean's horizontal field. Timorous at first they fluttered round the verge, Balanced and furled their hesitating wings, Then put them forth again with steadier aim; Now, gaining courage as they felt the wind Dilate their feathers, fill their airy frames With buoyancy that bore them from their feet, They yielded all their burden to the breeze, And sailed and soared where'er their guardians
Ascending, hovering, wheeling, or alighting, They searched the deep in quest of nobler game Than yet their inexperience had encountered; With these they battled in that element, Where wings or fins were equally at home, Till, conquerors in many a desperate strife,
THAT HAUNTED THE WATERS OF LAAKEN IN THE WINTER.
O MELANCHOLY bird, a winter's day Thou standest by the margin of the poor, And, taught by God, dost thy whole being school To patience, which all evil can allay. God has appointed thee the fish thy prey, And given thyself a lesson to the fool Unthrifty, to submit to moral rule, And his unthinking course by thee to weigh.
There need not schools nor the professor's chair, Though these be good, true wisdom to impart : He who has not enough for these to spare, Of time or gold, may yet amend his heart, And teach his soul by brooks and rivers fair, Nature is always wise in every part.
WHITHER, midst falling dew,
Thou 'rt gone, the abyss of heaven
They dragged their spoils to land, and gorged at Hath swallowed up thy form; yet, on my heart
Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast given,
And shall not soon depart:
He who, from zone to zone,
The halcyon loves in the noontide beam Guides through the boundless sky thy certain To follow his sport on the tranquil stream
IN the hollow tree, in the old gray tower, The spectral owl doth dwell;
Dull, hated, despised, in the sunshine hour, But at dusk he 's abroad and well ! Not a bird of the forest c'er mates with him; All mock him outright by day;
But at night, when the woods grow still and dim, The boldest will shrink away!
O, when the night falls, and roosts the fol, Then, then, is the reign of the horned owl!
And the owl hath a bride, who is fond and bold, And loveth the wood's deep gloom;
And, with eyes like the shine of the moonstone cold, She awaiteth her ghastly groom;
Not a feather she moves, not a carol she sings, As she waits in her tree so still;
But when her heart heareth his flapping wings, She hoots out her welcome shrill !
O, when the moon shines, and dogs do howl, Then, then, is the joy of the horned owl! Mourn not for the owl, nor his gloomy plight! The owl hath his share of good : If a prisoner he be in the broad daylight,
He is lord in the dark greenwood! Nor lonely the bird, nor his ghastly mate, They are each unto each a pride; Thrice fonder, perhaps, since a strange, dark fate Hath rent them from all beside!
So, when the night falls, and dogs do hotl, Sing, ho! for the reign of the horned owl! We know not alway
Who are kings by day, But the king of the night is the boldbrown owl!
TO THE HUMBLE-BEE. BURLY, dozing humble-bee! Where thou art is clime for me; Let them sail for Porto Rique, Far-off heats through seas to seek,
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