And lively fermentation, mounting, spreads All this innumerous-coloured scene of things.
As rising from the vegetable world
My theme ascends, with equal wing ascend My panting Muse; and hark, how loud the woods Invite you forth in all your gayest trim!
Lend me your song, ye nightingales! oh pour The mazy-running soul of melody
Into my varied verse! while I deduce, From the first note the hollow cuckoo sings, The symphony of Spring, and touch a theme Unknown to fame-the passion of the groves.
When first the soul of love is sent abroad, Warm through the vital air, and on the heart Harmonious seizes, the gay troops begin, In gallant thought, to plume the painted wing; And try again the long-forgotten strain, At first faint-warbled. But no sooner grows The soft infusion prevalent, and wide, Than, all alive, at once their joy o'erflows In music unconfin'd. Up springs the lark, Shrill-voiced, and loud, the messenger of morn; Ere yet the shadows fly, he mounted sings
Amid the dawning clouds, and from their haunts Calls the tuneful nations. Every copse
Deep-tangled, tree irregular, and bush
Bending with dewy moisture, o'er the heads Of the coy quiristers that lodge within,
Are prodigal of harmony. The thrush And wood-lark, o'er the kind-contending throng Superior heard, run through the sweetest length Of notes; when listening Philomela deigns To let them joy, and purposes, in thought
Elate, to make her night excel their day. The blackbird whistles from the thorny brake; The mellow bullfinch answers from the grove; Nor are the linnets, o'er the flowering furze Pour'd out profusely, silent. Join'd to these Innumerous songsters, in the freshening shade Of new-sprung leaves, their modulations mix Mellifluous. The jay, the rook, the daw, And each harsh pipe, discordant heard alone, Aid the full concert: while the stock-dove breathes A melancholy murmur through the whole.
'Tis love creates their melody, and all This waste of music is the voice of love; That even to birds, and beasts, the tender arts Of pleasing teaches. Hence the glossy kind Try every winning way inventive love
Can dictate, and in courtship to their mates Pour forth their little souls. First, wide around, With distant awe, in airy rings they rove, Endeavouring by a thousand tricks to catch The cunning, conscious, half-averted glance Of their regardless charmer. Should she seem Softening the least approvance to bestow, Their colours burnish, and, by hope inspir'd, They brisk advance; then, on a sudden struck, Retire disorder'd; then again approach; In fond rotation spread the spotted wing, And shiver every feather with desire.
Connubial leagues agreed, to the deep woods They haste away, all as their fancy leads, Pleasure, or food, or secret safety prompts; That Nature's great command may be obey'd: Nor all the sweet sensations they perceive Indulg'd in vain. Some to the holly-hedge
Nestling repair, and to the thicket some; Some to the rude protection of the thorn Commit their feeble offspring: the cleft tree Offers its kind concealment to a few,
Their food its insects, and its moss their nests, Others apart far in the grassy dale,
Or roughening waste, their humble texture weave. But most in woodland solitudes delight, In unfrequented glooms, or shaggy banks, Steep, and divided by a babbling brook,
Whose murmurs soothe them all the live-long day, When by kind duty fix'd. Among the roots Of hazel, pendant o'er the plaintive stream, They frame the first foundation of their domes-- Dry sprigs of trees, in artful fabric laid, And bound with clay together. Now 'tis nought But restless hurry through the busy air,
Beat by unnumber'd wings. The swallow sweeps The slimy pool, to build his hanging house Intent. And often, from the careless back Of herds and flocks a thousand tugging bills Pluck hair and wool; and oft, when unobserv'd, Steal from the barn a straw: till soft and warm, Clean and complete, their habitation grows.
As thus the patient dam assiduous sits,
Not to be tempted from her tender task,
Or by sharp hunger, or by smooth delight,
Though the whole loosened Spring around her blows,
Her sympathising lover takes his stand
High on th' opponent bank, and ceaseless sings
The tedious time away; or else supplies Her place a moment, while she sudden flits To pick the scanty meal. Th' appointed time With pious toil fulfil'd, the callow young,
Warm'd and expanded into perfect life,
Their brittle bondage break, and come to light, A helpless family, demanding food
With constant clamour. O what passions then, What melting sentiments of kindly care, On the new parents seize! Away they fly Affectionate, and undesiring bear
The most delicious morsel to their
Which equally distributed, again
The search begins. Even so a gentle pair, By fortune sunk, but form'd of generous mold, And charm'd with cares beyond the vulgar breast, In some lone cot amid the distant woods, Sustain'd alone by providential Heaven, Oft, as they weeping eye their infant train, Check their own appetites, and give them all. Nor toil alone they scorn: exalting love, By the great Father of the Spring inspir'd, Gives instant courage to the fearful race, And to the simple art. With stealthy wing, Should some rude foot their woody haunts molest, Amid a neighbouring bush they silent drop,
And whirring thence, as if alarm'd, deceive
Th' unfeeling school-boy. Hence, around the head Of wandering swain, the white-wing'd plover wheels Her sounding flight, and then directly on
In long excursion skims the level lawn,
To tempt him from her nest. The wild-duck, hence, O'er the rough moss, and o'er the trackless waste The heath-hen flutters, pious fraud! to lead The hot pursuing spaniel far astray.
Be not the Muse asham'd here to bemoan Her brothers of the grove, by tyrant man Inhuman caught, and in the narrow cage
From liberty confin'd, and boundless air. Dull are the pretty slaves, their plumage dull, Ragged, and all its brightening lustre lost; Nor is that sprightly wildness in their notes, Which, clear and vigorous, warbles from the beech. O then, ye friends of love and love-taught song, Spare the soft tribes, this barbarous art forbear; If on your bosom innocence can win, Music engage, or piety persuade!
But let not chief the nightingale lament Her ruin'd care, too delicately framed To brook the harsh confinement of the cage, Oft when, returning with her loaded bill, Th' astonish'd mother finds a vacant nest, By the hard hand of unrelenting clowns Robb'd, to the ground the vain provision falls; Her pinions ruffle, and, low-drooping, scarce Can bear the mourner to the poplar shade; Where, all abandon'd to despair, she sings Her sorrows through the night; and, on the bough, Sole-sitting, still at every dying fall
Takes up again her lamentable strain.
Of winding woe; till, wide around, the woods Sigh to her song, and with her wail resound.
But now the feather'd youth their former bounds, Ardent, disdain; and, weighing oft their wings, Demand the free possession of the sky:
This one glad office more, and then dissolves Parental love at once, now needless grown. Unlavish Wisdom never works in vain.
'Tis on some evening, sunny, grateful, mild,
When nought but balm is breathing through the woods, With yellow lustre bright, that the new tribes Visit the spacious heavens, and look abroad
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