See yon robin on the spray;
Look ye how his tiny form
Swells, as when his merry lay
Gushes forth amid the storm.
Though the snow is falling fast,
Specking o’er his coat with white,—
Though loud roars the chilly blast,
And the evening ’s lost in night,—
Yet from out the darkness dreary
Cometh still that...
In this May-month, by grace
of heaven, things shoot apace.
The waiting multitude
of fair boughs in the wood,—
How few days have arrayed
their beauty in green shade!
What have I seen or heard?
it was the yellow bird
Sang in the tree: he flew
a flame against the blue;
Upward he flashed. Again,
...
On Seeing a Storm-Petrel in a Cage on a Cottage Wall and Releasing It
GAZE not at me, my poor unhappy bird;
That sorrow is more than human in thine eye;
Too deep already is my spirit stirred
To see thee here, child of the sea and sky,
Cooped in a cage with food thou canst not eat,
Thy “snow-flake” soiled, and soiled those conquering feet...
The Poetry of earth is never dead;
When all the birds are faint with the hot sun
And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run
From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead.
That is the grasshopper’s,—he takes the lead
In summer luxury,—he has never done
With his delights; for, when tired out with fun,
He rests at ease beneath some pleasant...
Green little vaulter in the sunny grass,
Catching your heart up at the feel of June,—
Sole voice that ’s heard amidst the lazy noon,
When even the bees lag at the summoning brass;
And you, warm little housekeeper, who class
With those who think the candles come too soon,
Loving the fire, and with your tricksome tune
Nick the glad silent...
Burly, dozing humblebee!
Where thou art is clime for me;
Let me chase thy waving lines;
Far-off heats through seas to seek,
I will follow thee alone,
Thou animated torrid zone!
Zigzag steerer, desert cheerer,
Let me chase thy waving lines;
Keep me nearer, me thy hearer,
Singing over shrubs and vines.
Insect lover...
The Swarthy bee is a buccaneer,
A burly velveted rover,
Who loves the booming wind in his ear
As he sails the seas of clover.
A waif of the goblin pirate crew,
With not a soul to deplore him,
He steers for the open verge of blue
With the filmy world before him.
His flimsy sails abroad on the wind
Are shivered with...
Anonymous translation from the German
THE LION is the desert’s king; through his domain so wide
Right swiftly and right royally this night he means to ride.
By the sedgy brink, where the wild herds drink, close couches the grim chief;
The trembling sycamore above whispers with every leaf.
At evening, on the Table Mount, when ye can see no more
...
From the German by John Eliot Bowen
From “Songs of Toil”
HOW sweet the manger smells! The cows all listen
With outstretched necks, and with impatient lowing;
They greet the clover, their content now showing—
And how they lick their noses till they glisten!
The velvet-coated beauties do not languish
Beneath the morning’s golden light...
From the Italian by Frank Sewall
From the “Poesie”
I LOVE thee, pious ox; a gentle feeling
Of vigor and of peace thou giv’st my heart.
How solemn, like a monument, thou art!
Over wide fertile fields thy calm gaze stealing,
Unto the yoke with grave contentment kneeling,
To man’s quick work thou dost thy strength impart.
He...
