The Home Book of Verse Volume Iii Part 54

"Dear bird," I said, "what is thy name?"

And thrice the mournful answer came, So faint and far, and yet so near,-- "Pe-wee! pe-wee! peer!"

For so I found my forest bird,-- The pewee of the loneliest woods, Sole singer in these solitudes, Which never robin's whistle stirred, Where never bluebird's plume intrudes.

Quick darting through the dewy morn, The redstart trilled his twittering horn, And vanished in thick boughs: at even, Like liquid pearls fresh showered from heaven, The high notes of the lone wood-thrush Fall on the forest's holy hush: But thou all day complainest here,-- "Pe-wee! pe-wee! peer!"

Hast thou, too, in thy little breast, Strange longings for a happier lot,-- For love, for life, thou know'st not what,-- A yearning, and a vague unrest, For something still which thou hast not?-- Thou soul of some benighted child That perished, crying in the wild!

Or lost, forlorn, and wandering maid, By love allured, by love betrayed, Whose spirit with her latest sigh Arose, a little winged cry, Above her chill and mossy bier!

"Dear me! dear me! dear!"

Ah, no such piercing sorrow mars The pewee's life of cheerful ease!

He sings, or leaves his song to seize An insect sporting in the bars Of mild bright light that gild the trees.

A very poet he! For him All pleasant places still and dim: His heart, a spark of heavenly fire, Burns with undying, sweet desire: And so he sings; and so his song, Though heard not by the hurrying throng, Is solace to the pensive ear: Pewee! pewee! peer!

John Townsend Trowbridge [1827-1916]

ROBIN REDBREAST

Sweet Robin, I have heard them say That thou wert there upon the day The Christ was crowned in cruel scorn And bore away one bleeding thorn,-- That so the blush upon thy breast, In shameful sorrow, was impressed; And thence thy genial sympathy With our redeemed humanity.

Sweet Robin, would that I might be Bathed in my Saviour's blood, like thee; Bear in my breast, whate'er the loss, The bleeding blazon of the cross; Live ever, with thy loving mind, In fellows.h.i.+p with human-kind; And take my pattern still from thee, In gentleness and constancy.

George Was.h.i.+ngton Doane [1799-1859]

ROBIN REDBREAST

Good-by, good-by to Summer!

For Summer's nearly done;-- The garden smiling faintly, Cool breezes in the sun; Our thrushes now are silent, Our swallows flown away,-- But Robin's here in coat of brown, And scarlet breast-knot gay.

Robin, Robin Redbreast, O Robin dear!

Robin sings so sweetly In the falling of the year.

Bright yellow, red, and orange, The leaves come down in hosts; The trees are Indian princes, But soon they'll turn to ghosts; The scanty pears and apples Hang russet on the bough; It's Autumn, Autumn, Autumn late, 'Twill soon be Winter now.

Robin, Robin Redbreast, O Robin dear!

And what will this poor Robin do?

For pinching days are near.

The fireside for the cricket, The wheat-stack for the mouse, When trembling night-winds whistle And moan all round the house.

The frosty ways like iron, The branches plumed with snow,-- Alas! in Winter dead and dark, Where can poor Robin go?

Robin, Robin Redbreast, O Robin dear!

And a crumb of bread for Robin, His little heart to cheer!

William Allingham [1824-1889]

THE SANDPIPER

Across the narrow beach we flit, One little sandpiper and I, And fast I gather, bit by bit, The scattered driftwood bleached and dry.

The wild waves reach their hands for it, The wild wind raves, the tide runs high, As up and down the beach we flit,-- One little sandpiper and I.

Above our heads the sullen clouds Scud black and swift across the sky; Like silent ghosts in misty shrouds Stand out the white lighthouses high.

Almost as far as eye can reach I see the close-reefed vessels fly, As fast we flit along the beach,-- One little sandpiper and I.

I watch him as he skims along, Uttering his sweet and mournful cry.

He starts not at my fitful song, Or flash of fluttering drapery.

He has no thought of any wrong; He scans me with a fearless eye: Staunch friends are we, well tried and strong, The little sandpiper and I.

Comrade, where wilt thou be to-night When the loosed storm breaks furiously?

My driftwood fire will burn so bright!

To what warm shelter canst thou fly?

I do not fear for thee, though wroth The tempest rushes through the sky: For are we not G.o.d's children both, Thou, little sandpiper, and I?

Celia Thaxter [1835-1894]

THE SEA-MEW

How joyously the young sea-mew Lay dreaming on the waters blue, Whereon our little bark had thrown A little shade, the only one,-- But shadows ever man pursue.

Familiar with the waves and free As if their own white foam were he, His heart upon the heart of ocean Lay learning all its mystic motion, And throbbing to the throbbing sea.

And such a brightness in his eye, As if the ocean and the sky Within him had lit up and nursed A soul G.o.d gave him not at first To comprehend their majesty.

We were not cruel, yet did sunder His white wing from the blue waves under, And bound it, while his fearless eyes Shone up to ours in calm surprise, As deeming us some ocean wonder!

We bore our ocean bird unto A gra.s.sy place, where he might view The flowers that curtsey to the bees, The waving of the tall green trees, The falling of the silver dew.

But flowers of earth were pale to him Who had seen the rainbow fishes swim; And when earth's dew around him lay He thought of ocean's winged spray, And his eye waxed sad and dim.

The green trees round him only made A prison with their darksome shade; And dropped his wing, and mourned he For his own boundless glittering sea-- Albeit he knew not they could fade.

Then One her gladsome face did bring, Her gentle voice's murmuring, In ocean's stead his heart to move And teach him what was human love: He thought it a strange, mournful thing.

He lay down in his grief to die (First looking to the sea-like sky That hath no waves!), because, alas!

Our human touch did on him pa.s.s, And, with our touch, our agony.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning [1806-1861]