JOY OF SPRING. Midst the reeds and pebbles hiding, Or by water-lilies gliding, Shun with fear our near approach. Do not dread us, timid fishes, We have neither net nor hook; Wanderers we, whose only wishes CHARLOTTE SMITH. 41 JOY OF SPRING. FOR lo! no sooner has the cold withdrawn, Burn with the golden chorus of the hive. Now all these sweets, these sounds, this vernal blaze Is but one joy, expressed a thousand ways: And honey from the flowers, and song from birds, Are from the poet's pen his overflowing words. LEIGH HUNT. THE NIGHTINGALE AT EVE. ALL is still, A balmy night! and though the stars be dim, In Nature there is nothing melancholy. 'Tis the merry Nightingale That crowds, and hurries, and precipitates THE NIGHTINGALE AT EVE. 43 I know a grove Of large extent, hard by a castle huge, In wood and thicket over the wide grove, They answer and provoke each other's songs- And murmurs musical and swift jug jug, And one low piping sound more sweet than allStirring the air with such a harmony, That, should you close your eyes, you might almost Forget it was not day! On moonlit bushes Whose dewy leaflets are but half disclosed, You may, perchance, behold them on the twigs, Their bright, bright eyes, their eyes both bright and full, Glistening, while many a glowworm in the shade Lights up her love torch. And oft a moment's space, What time the moon was lost behind a cloud, As if some sudden gale had swept at once On blossomy twig still swinging from the breeze, Like tipsy Joy that reels with tossing head. COLERIDGE. BEES AND BUTTERFLIES. THE insect-world, now sunbeams higher climb, Its buttercup-like flowers that shut at night, THE ANGLER'S WISH. They sip, and find their honey-dreams are vain, The butterflies by eager hopes undone, Glad as a child come out to greet the sun : CLARE. THE ANGLER'S WISH. I IN the flow'ry meads would be: I with my angle would rejoice, Sit here, and see the turtle-dove Court his chaste mate to acts of love: Or on that bank feel the west wind Here hear my Kenna sing a song, 45 |