Thou sportive satirist of Nature's school, RICHARD HENRY WILDE. THE BOB-O-LINKUM. Thou vocal sprite-thou feathered troubadour! And play in foppish trim the masking stranger? Say, art thou long 'mid forest glooms benighted, And, Ariel-like, again on men to lavish? They tell sad stories of thy mad-cap freaks, They say alike thy song and plumage changes; Thou art unmatch'd, blithe warbler of the North, Joyous, yet tender, was that gush of song, Caught from the brooks, where 'mid its wild flowers smiling, The silent prairie listens all day long, The only captive to such sweet beguiling; Or didst thou, flitting through the verdurous halls, To make our flowering pastures here harmonious? Caught'st thou thy carol from Ottawa maid, Where through the liquid fields of wild rice plashingBrushing the ears from off the burden'd blade, Her birch canoe o'er some lone lake is flashing? Or did the reeds of some savanna South, Detain thee while thy northern flight pursuing, To place those melodies in thy sweet mouth, The spice-fed winds had taught them in their wooing? Unthrifty prodigal! is no thought of ill Thy ceaseless roundelay disturbing ever? CHARLES FENNO HOFFMAN. THE OWL. High rides the moon amid the fleecy clouds, Among these mouldering pinnacles; but hark That dismal cry! it is the wailing owl, Night long she mourns, perched in some vacant niche, Or time-rent crevice; sometimes to the woods She bends her silent, slowly-moving wing, And on some leafless tree, dead of old age, To deeper solitude she wings her way. 10 REV. JAMES GRAHAME. EXTRACT. FROM JOURNAL OF A NATURALIST." Rural sounds, the voices, the language of the wild creatures, as heard by the naturalist, belong to, and are in concord with, the country only. Our sight, our smell may perhaps be deceived for an interval by conservatories, horticultural arts, and bowers of sweets; but our hearing can in no way be beguiled by any semblance of what is heard in the grove or the field, The hum, the murmur, the medley of the mead, is peculiarly its own, admits of no imitation, and the voices of our birds convey particular intimation, and distinctly notify the various periods of the year with an accuracy as certain as they are detailed in our calendars. The season of spring is always announced as approaching by the notes of the rookery, by the jingle or wooing accents of the dark frequenters of the trees; and that time having passed away, these contentions and cadences are no longer heard. The cuckoo then comes and informs us that spring has arrived; that he has journeyed to see us, borne by gentle gales in sunny days; that fragrant flowers are in the copse and the mead, and all things telling of gratulation and of joy; the children mark this well-known sound, spring out, and cuckoo! cuckoo! as they gambol down the lane; the very plow-boy bids him welcome in early morn. It is hardly spring without the cuckoo's song: and, having told his tale, he has voice for no more-is silent or away. Then comes the dark, swift-winged marten, glancing through the air, that seems afraid to visit our uncertain clime; he comes, though late, and hurries through his business here eager again to depart, all day long in agitation and precipitate flight. The bland zephyrs of the spring have no charms for them; but basking and careering in the sultry gleams of June and July, they associate in throngs, and, screaming, dash round the steeple or the ruined tower, to serenade their nesting mates; and glare and heat are in their train. When the fervor of summer ceases, this bird of the sun will depart. The evening robin, from the summit of some leafless bough or projecting point, tells us that autumn is come, and brings matured fruits, chilly airs, and sober hours; and he, the lonely minstrel that now sings, is understood by all. These four birds thus indicate a separate season, have no interference with the intelligence of the other, nor could they be transposed without the loss of all the meaning they convey, which no contrivance of art could supply; and, by long association, they have become identified with the period, and in peculiar accordance with the time. J. L. KNAPP. THE PATTICHAP'S NEST. Well! in my many walks I've rarely found Its nest; close by the rut-gulled wagon-road, Brown as the roadway side. Small bits of hay * A grasshopper's green jump might break the shells; JOHN CLARE A THOUGHT. UPON OCCASION OF A RED-BREAST COMING INTO HIS CHAMBER. Pretty bird, how cheerfully dost thou sit and sing, and yet knowest not where thou art, nor where thou shalt make thy next meal; and at night must shroud thyself in a bush for lodging! What shame is it for me, that see before me so liberal provisions of my God, and find myself sit warm under my own roof, yet am ready to droop under a distrustful and unthankful dullness. Had I so little certainty of my harbor and purveyance, how heartless should I be, how careful; how little list should I have to make music to thee or myself. Surely thou comest not hither without a Providence. God sent thee not so much to delight, as to shame me, but all in a conviction of my sullen unbelief, who, under more apparent means, am less cheerful and confident; reason and faith have not done so much in me, as in thee mere instinct of nature; want of foresight makes thee more merry, if not more happy here, than the foresight of better things maketh me. O God, thy providence is not impaired by those powers thou hast given me above these brute things; let not my greater helps hinder me from a holy security and comfortable reliance on thee! BISHOP HALL, 1574-1656. THE BIRDS OF PASSAGE. FROM THE SWEDISH. Behold! the birds fly From Gauthiod's strand, And seek with a sigh Some far foreign land. The sounds of their woe With hollow winds blend : "Where now must we go? Our flight whither tend?" 'Tis thus unto heaven that their wailings ascend. "The Scandian shore We leave in despair, Our days glided o'er So blissfully there: We there built our nest Among bright blooming trees; There rock'd us to rest The balm-bearing breeze; But now to far lands we must traverse the sea. "With rose-crown all bright On tresses of gold, The midsummer night It was sweet to behold: The calm was so deep, So lovely the ray, We could not then sleep, But were tranced by the spray, Till wakened by beams from the bright car of day. |