38 THE CUCKOO. THE LARK. Lo, hear the gentle Lark, weary of rest, And wakes the morning from whose silver breast Who does the world so gloriously behold, The cedar tops and hills seem burnished gold. SHAKSPEARE. THE CUCKOO. WHENCE is the magic pleasure of the sound? Or bush, near which we stood, when on the ear And yet again came down the budding vale? It tells of lengthening days, of coming blooms; But, there, the stranger flies close to the ground, And trusts her offspring to another's care: The sooty-plumed hedge-sparrow frequent acts The youngling, destined to supplant her own. GRAHAME. THE BLACKBIRD WHEN snowdrops die, and the green primrose leaves Announce the coming flower, the Merle's note, 40 THE BLACKBIRD. His jetty breast embrowned; the rounded clay While he, upon a neighboring tree, his lay, More richly full, melodiously renews. When twice seven days have run, the moment snatch, That she has flitted off her charge, to cool Of eve, when, nestling o'er her brood, the dam Of doubtful dawning gray; then from his wing GRAHAME. TO DAFFODILS. FAIRE daffodils, we weep to see You haste away so soone; Until the hastening day But to the even-song; And, having prayed together, we Will goe with you along! We have short time to stay, as you; We have as short a spring, As quick a growth to meet decay, As you, or any thing: We die, As your hours doe; and drie Away Like to the summer's raine, Or as the pearles of morning dew, Ne'er to be found again. 6 HERRICK 42 ODE ON SPRING. ODE ON SPRING. Lo! where the rosy-bosomed Hours, The untaught harmony of spring: Where'er the oak's thick branches stretch A broader, browner shade, Where'er the rude and moss-grown beech O'ercanopies the glade, Beside some water's rushy brink With me the Muse shall sit, and think (At ease reclined in rustic state) How vain the ardor of the crowd, How indigent the great! |