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239

THE FIFTH DAY. The Fishes and the Birds.

241

Argument.

Invited by the Stars to our heavenly home we turn to take affectionate leave of the creatures below. The Air and the Waters filled with life at the Divine word,—compared to the rapid expansion of morning light. Multiplicity in kinds and habits of fish. Wisdom walks in the bottom of the deep. Beauty of shells. Diversity of fish in different seas. Each kind knows its appointed habitation. Migratory hordes. The Eucharist on this Day. The sacred and moral teaching of fish. Their mystical intention.

The birds,—described on the sea shore and riverbanks. Amphibious kinds emblematic of evil. Wonders of the bird's nest. The spring of springs. Profusion and variety of birds. Their songs and spiritual teaching, as connected with the Ascension on this Day. Heavenly-mindedness and thanksgiving. The Dove—the Red-breast—the Lark—the Nightingale —the Owl: Kite: Ravens—the Eagle—the Ostrich —the domestic Cock, and the Peacock. Migrations of birds a divine lesson to man. The Redstart—the Swallow—the Frigate bird. The bird of Paradise— the Stork. Parental instinct the image of God's love. Birds of prey represent the gathering together of mankind to the great Sacrifice.

243

MORNING.

I

The stars within their palaces sublime
Attune their silver harps; the earth and floods
Responsive carry on the glorious chime;
The streams are whispering to the list'ning woods,
The woods are answering from their solitudes
With boughs and tuneful birds; whose grateful lays
Call upon man who o'er his sorrow broods;
Man too his voice melodious fain would raise,
And Angels lean from Heaven to carry on the praise.
244

II

And ye, sweet families that fly or rove,
Sport in mid air, or glance where waters flow,
Invited to our starry homes above,
On all your haunts and ways that are below
We linger, till our thoughts with wonder glow;
While in each varied instinct and retreat
We read of things far greater than ye know;
Lessons ye bear for sin and sorrow meet,
Like babes which Wisdom loves to play around her feet.

III

As on some foreign land a foster child,
Tho' rear'd 'mid strangers, hardships, woe and pain,
Looks lovingly, by parting thoughts beguil'd,
To bosoms which his exile there sustain,—
Turns with tear-glistening eye, and turns again;
So to those homes above ere we return
From this our earth, and sky, and circling main,
We marks of our Creator's hand discern
Stamp'd on our house of pain, and would His praises learn.
245

IV

'Tis the fifth day, fresh bloom the Earth and Heaven,
On earth the varied tapestry conferr'd,
And flowering gems to the blue vault are given;
Now Sea and Air ask for the Almighty Word.
Lo, through all space that living Voice is heard;
Kingdoms unnumber'd, kinds and kindred born;
Through all her secret depths Nature is stirr'd,
And moving souls the air and wave adorn,
Swift as light issues forth from silver gates of morn.

V

Sweet and expansive as the morning light
Bathes every nook, emerging from the gloom,
So Nature through her realms beyond the sight
Out-pour'd with pangless birth her teeming womb;
Each sea, lake, river, fount, in vernal bloom
Swarming with all their mingled shapes appear'd;—
Eyes, will, life, motion all the world illume;
The spouting whale its length thro' ocean rear'd,
The minnow in the brook his boat in silence steer'd.
246

VI

Then imag'd in the watery glass were seen
The forms of winged life which were above;
Where the tree flung its shade o'er waters green
The singing bird pour'd forth its voice of love;
The fish responsive in their gladness move;
Rejoicing myriads their live haunts pursue
Through every clime, o'er waste, mount, vale, or grove;
The eagle pois'd on the majestic blue,
The gnat tried his blithe horn in airy circlets new.

VII

Twin-born the fish and fowl;—in seas and skies
One Hand is seen, one Maker's laws prevail,
Who oneness loves in all diversities;
The birds and fish are born with rudder tail;
The air expands the plume, or fishy mail;
Pheasant-like dyes and peacock-spangles range
Thro' variations of the finny scale,
Beauteously sorted to some wild sea-change;
Each vary seas or skies in wondrous instinct strange.
247

VIII

What multitudinous tribes unnumber'd, stor'd
In those few words of that Divine command;
He who would reckon each sea-wandering horde
May count the Atlantic waves that reach the strand;
Or mete the sea within the hollow hand.
With shell or scale, with fin or feet; some creep,
Some glide with lightning speed, some ever stand;
Some row their oary barge in silent sweep;
Some wing the upper wave, some ply the lower deep.

IX

How sweetly in the lake or crystal stream
Their joyous inmates sail, or start aside
Scar'd by the shadow of a passing gleam;
Then with their silvery forms serenely glide,
Or pennons dropp'd with gold, and softly slide
Like a live star, with motion like repose;
Nor less in bosom of the ocean tide:
What brilliancy of hues around them glows,
From life's own well within such purple effluence flows.
248

X

Some in their shelly armour scarcely creep,
Then spring upon their prey with winged tail;
Some dart like living arrows of the deep,
Or steer their state in purple-speckled scale.
Embosom'd in their forms of sheltering mail,
Then swell the wind-balloon, and at their will
Furl or unfurl within their breezy sail,
While opens or contracts the trembling gill,
And winnowing the wave their quivering forms are still.

XI

Now anchor'd seem in slumber, 'neath some cave,
Or bank, or stone, hous'd motionless, or lie
Asleep within the bosom of the wave,
With feathery sails and unclos'd shadeless eye;—
Still, save the tail which buoys them tremblingly.
So meet the alternations of repose
For all beneath the moon; sleep, ere we die,
Death's brother is and shade where'er he goes,
The witness of our sin, repairer of our woes.
249

XII

How beauteous their sea-kingdoms, where the sail
From harbouring bays fills its light wing, and flees
O'er the vast waters whitening in the gale!
Men make themselves companions with the seas
And with its watery inmates, in the breeze
Exulting; then their wondrous tales bring nigh
Of Scyllas, Sirens, and Symplegades,
And monsters of the deep that welter'd by,
Like Isles that walk'd the seas, spouting their founts on high.

XIII

Spirit of awe and wonder, let me float
O'er the wild waves and catch the inspiring breeze;
Be thou my pole-star, pilot, tortoise-boat,
Or dolphin charm'd by music; where at ease
Harbour and herd at bottom of the seas
Wave-wandering tribes, with their wild ways and wars,
With roving and returning companies;
Where mountains, birds, beasts, trees, and flowers, and stars
Have their strange counterparts shut in by watery bars.
250

XIV

Great wonder-working Nature, hand in hand
Lead me with thee into thy secret store,
That I may spell this day's Divine command,
Note the live syllables and more and more
May enter in and marvel and adore;
Or rather, gracious Spirit, may of Thee
Study and read Eden's primeval lore
With Adam, or with One far more than he
Who this day gave us wings ascending, and made free.

XV

Through Nature's palace lead me, where withdrawn
'Mid sea-weed caves of ocean far she hies,
'Mid coral bowery roofs, and, like the dawn,
Floors moon-beam pav'd and pearly canopies
Which imitate below cerulean skies;
With scales that gleam with gold and radiant spar
Meteor-like glides the fish of many dyes;
It seems the dwelling of the evening star
Upon the mountain-top so beautiful afar.
251

XVI

Vain boast of man that these are all for him!
They are for glory of his God alone,
E'en as the burning-winged Seraphim;
In waste of waters from all age unknown
Hid in the deep His marvels thick are sown,
Heaven's silvery chains in secret there abide,
E'en as in waters which surround His throne:
What are those giant monsters roaming wide
But things which God hath made to humble mortal pride?

XVII

What foot hath walk'd beneath the watery brine
Pav'd with sea-stirring life, live shells that steal
'Mid their own emerald caves, and move and shine
In bosom of the deep? Who shall unseal
Great Ocean's book of wonders, and reveal
Their tribes, which e'en to name were learned lore?
What power to mould their forms, and then anneal
Their rainbow tints that gem the ocean floor;—
Once homes of living things, now shells upon the shore?
252

XVIII

Spiral, or orb'd, cornute, or annular,
Bivalve, or multivalve;—what tongue shall tell
Their forms testaceous, where some living spar
Of Ocean once had made his horned cell
Sea-pasturing, now it lies a beauteous shell;
Where on the pebbled margin of the seas
Their little homes to us are visible,
Like tombs of men, cities, lost palaces,
Whereby on shore we read of Ocean's mysteries.

XIX

Or stand amaz'd at some sea-wander'd worm,
And question him of wonders of the deep,
Where beyond reach of sunshine or of storm
Submarine hordes and herds their kingdoms keep,
Wave-moving habitations; from whence peep
Sea-monsters; in their strange instinctive ways
Of solitary range or numerous sweep,
A guiding Omnipresence with them stays,
And marks them for His own; they tell the deep His praise.
253

XX

Wisdom is there, whose eye doth never sleep,
She compasses Heaven's circuit star-inwrought,
And walks upon the bottom of the deep;
'Tis she the little Nautilus hath taught
With shell-canoe, adventurous Argonaut,
Oars to put forth and spread an air-blown sail,
As if man's labour'd skill to set at naught;
She tells the Echinus of the rising gale,
Safe on his ballast pois'd,—his anchor in the veil.

XXI

Some Wonder hath sent forth with her own stamp,
As with the purple dye or music shell
The Murex and Tritonis; or the lamp
Of Noctiluca, o'er the Atlantic swell
Torch-bearing tribes; or as the seamen tell
The Seal amphibious sitting on the rock,
Where lightning flash hath made him visible,
Rejoicing in the roaring thunder-shock,
Seems with the storm at play, the elements to mock.
254

XXII

But who can speak the unnumber'd tribes that throng
In all the flowing seas from pole to pole,
Atlantic deeps or Arctic coasts among,
Or where the Indian Oceans onward roll,
Bays Erythrean and the Egyptian shoal,
Or Adria's purple robe gemm'd with bright Isles;
Each hath its haunts and its appointed goal;
Or where Australia with its coral piles
Lifts o'er the purpling surge its brilliancy and smiles.

XXIII

Manifold as herb-kingdoms 'neath each sky
They vary form and nature, and put on
In thousand modes endless diversity
Of instinct, haunt, or nurture; seek and shun
Diversely, and by varied arts are won,
Hook, net, or spear; so without sight or sound
In every place that Voice for ever One
With power creative hath its being found,
In sea, or stream, or fount, girds each and all around.
255

XXIV

Each hath its kingdom, its allotted home,
Each finds untaught its place; all know the bourne
Of nature, nor beyond their orbit roam;
Tribes, race, and families; their lines unworn,
Save as in the bright rainbow, or the morn,
Into each other melt the golden hues
That separate their ranks and each adorn;
Fish fly aloof; and fowls the waters choose;
Wing'd fin, or finny foot the doubtful way pursues.

XXV

Still constant in their stations and their change,
As monthly-veering moon, or night's dark dome
With starry flocks on high; their summer range
And wintry house they know, their hearth and home,
And blue horizon o'er them where they roam,—
Thence inland haunts, whene'er the season calls
To genial streams, and the o'ershadowing gloom
Of woodland bank, or foaming water-falls;
Then wind their downward course to ocean's watery stalls.
256

XXVI

That law that in the living Word went forth
Hath ever been about them, like a wall,
And mark'd their habitations, south or north,
Ganges or Oronoko, in each hall
Of Ocean's briny chambers; great and small
Hedged in their own sea-homes and ancient skies
Save when they hear that trumpet's sounding call,
Or herald sign; then at its bidding rise
With all their finny troops, and spread their companies.

XXVII

Rous'd by that summons from the Arctic pole,
What summer moon or starry Pleiades
Brings like a torrent down the herring shoal?
With outstretch'd wing their army fills the seas,
Norwegian creeks and clustering Hebrides,
From Iceland to the Baltic stretch'd afar,
Deploys their columns in the southern breeze;
Then back recall'd to their own northern bar,
They hide in icy folds 'neath their own wintry star.
257

XXVIII

It is the Eternal's mandate bids them roam,
The Angel of His Presence is their guide,
Sends forth their legions, keeps, and summons home.
Such powers mysterious in the deep preside,
Exert their wondrous spell, their footsteps hide.
Hence fabled Neptunes with their forkèd wand,
With silver-sandal'd Nereids 'neath the tide;
They saw a regal sceptre on the strand,
A bridle they perceiv'd that own'd a Master's hand.

XXIX

The Day and Night alternate from their cave
He bade to range the earth; the watery race
He bade from sea to sea to change the wave;
He of the feathery tribes from place to place
Marshals the ranks, aerial paths to trace;
While at His unseen beck they come and go.
All motion, all mutation; Time, and Space,
Winds, Seasons, Stars, they traverse to and fro,
Their stations and their bounds they at His bidding know.
258

XXX

'Tis God, our God, is with them in their seas,
This is the secret stamp'd on tales of yore,
Of instincts and of human sympathies;
Of Proteus and half-gods in sea, on shore;
And of the dolphin which Arion bore,
Charm'd by the harmonies of his sweet shell;
And such that later legendary lore
Of saints and fish that lov'd the saints so well,
And join'd that Paduan saint their Maker's praise to tell.

XXXI

Such would I read a mirror more divine,
As of that Whale wherein the Prophet pray'd,
And wisdom learnt as in a holy shrine;
The creature heard, the Prophet disobey'd.
And in that Voice which 'neath the waters sway'd
And brought the Galilean fish to shore,
With silver sign which our Redeemer paid;
Opening its mouth it paid the sacred store,
And own'd the Lord of all beneath the watery floor.
259

XXXII

Ye finny nations, like your own clear sea,
In bosom of the waters deep and mild,
Wherein ye sport majestic, blithe, and free;
Fair as its surface which the sunbeams gild,
With all its radiant hues so soft and wild:
That animation, which within you lies,
Is like the laughing waves when ocean smil'd;
Yet as ye blend in sweet societies,
How hidden is your life, like angels in the skies!

XXXIII

O beauteous life continued without change,
While He who gave them life that life supplies,
And one and all through realms assign'd they range;
Have naught yet all possessing, heavenly-wise;
E'en as the poor in spirit, nothing prize,
Have nothing; yet the common air is theirs,
Theirs the blue vault, and starry-peopled skies,
Theirs all the sights which beauteous ocean wears,
Theirs is one common Lord on Whom they cast their cares.
260

XXXIV

Alas, far other is the sight reveal'd
In Adam's sinful sons, as they are found;
Kingdom they add to kingdom, field to field,
Make themselves sure and grow into the ground.
“Possession,” how much in that word is bound!
And in that awful word of conflict “Mine!”
While nature's liberty is spread around,
Our Father, and “our” home, “our” hope divine;
But men their restless souls with love of greed entwine.

XXXV

Yet Ocean glasses Heaven's own troubled brow
And fallen man; from hence the ravening maw
“An open sepulchre,” the mind—the blow
Insidious, shark's dire tooth, and lobster claw,
The fang, the sword injurious, and the saw;
Passions of man they speak and evil will.
Yet these are guiltless by their nature's law,
While men have power to choose and know the ill,
And destinies more high to break or to fulfil.
261

XXXVI

See how its surface is of war the seat!
Man's wingèd homes thereon that come and go
Are nam'd and arm'd for war, with thunders meet,
And lead the van of conflicts urg'd below,
Pursuing and pursued, while to and fro
Great prey on less, upon the weak the strong.
What are these signs but that they bear our woe?
Yet unto us alone the Angelic song,
Peace and good will 'mong men and God's own words belong.

XXXVII

These on Thee wait, till Thou shalt them relieve,
And ope Thine hand according to their need;
Thou with Thyself on this same hallow'd eve,
Thou with Thyself e'en sinful man didst feed,
Thyself of immortality the seed.
All speaks this Day of deeper mystery,
Which neither eye, nor ear, nor heart can read,
Which hidden in the waters is with Thee,
Where Faith hath her abode in an unfathom'd sea.
262

XXXVIII

Thou art Thyself the “goodly Pearl,” from man
Hid in the deep; of Light the living Well,
Compass'd around with flesh of mortal span;
The radiant moon is sphered in a sea-shell;
The fish unseen in the dark waters dwell.
Such is the life in God, which hidden lies
In its Baptismal haunts invisible;
It hath its kingdom, its own world and skies,
But lift it from the waves and soon anon it dies.

XXXIX

Man is that Fish which dwells beneath the deep,
Which doth alike his haunts and knowledge bound,
Of worlds unnumber'd which about him sweep
He nothing knows; but in that narrow round
Soul, will, and choice are given him, ways profound,
While ever nearer to the eternal shore,
The meshes of the net his path surround,
Where Angels gather in the chosen store,
And fling the bad away—perish evermore.
263

XL

Peace-speaking tribes! to contemplation given
Are men that love you; sweet philosophy
Hath mingled with your praises thoughts of Heaven:
Admit me to your silent company,
With fabled Aristæus 'neath the sea
O'er-arching, charm'd with that melodious tale.
Or on your waters gazing placidly
Here let me pause, as sinks the noon-tide gale,
Anchor awhile at rest, and harbour'd furl the sail.
264

EVENING.

I

And now arising from the deep profound
Emerge we on the shore; where Staffa's cave
With pillars upon pillars thrown around
Looks at her image in the glassy wave;
Their marble feet where Isles Ionian lave;
Or with vermillion groves, heap piled on heap,
Hardening herself the sun and storm to brave
The World of coral issues from the deep,
Where sea-birds skim the surge or mailèd tortoise creep.
265

II

But what are these which wing the Atlantic shore
Careering with their troops, on sea or land,
Delighting in the blast and love the roar?
Some skim the surge, some walk the eddying strand,
Some float on side-long plume; some trooping stand
On whitening reefs; the Cormorant from the rest
Flaps far away his length of wing; at hand
Some look down from the cliff's aerial nest;
The Heron'mong the reeds uplifts his towering crest.

III

Wild and majestic as the sea they love
Our souls upon their pinions have they borne
To the great vast, our petty cares above;
Yea, if with them we take the wings of morn,
And seek the desert nakedness forlorn,
Thy Presence, seen in instincts manifold,
Continues in Thy creatures still unworn,
In all their cries and ways which were of old;—
E'en there Thine Hand shall lead, and Thy Right-hand shall hold.
266

IV

And haply contemplations more Divine
Of Baptism, and the Heaven-ascending wing
Are with them, and may blend the ethereal sign,
By ocean, or by river, lake, or spring;—
The Swan, the queen of waters, like a thing
Of majesty and beauty borne along
'Mid verdant banks where birds on branches sing;
The darting King-fisher, where insects throng,
Fanning their gem-like wings the shining streams among.

V

Some eye within the pool their glorious make,
Or with their new-born plumage try the wave,
While others dive below and rise and shake
Their glossy pinions; some the surface lave,
And light on the green margin, seek the cave,
Or green embowering branch; love and delight
Expands their souls and utterance seems to crave,
Through all their motions speaks, and fills the sight,
Rejoicing in the flood of new-born life and might.
267

VI

Amphibious some by shore, or pool, or cave,
Of fin and scale bereav'd, or seen in flight
Borne onward on the bosom of the wave;
Serpentine lengths with hairy main aright,
And all the Egyptian brood uncouth as night;
The crab slow-sailing from his rocky lair
To sea-weed basins; meanwhile oft to sight
Porpoises leaping up into mid air,
Or 'neath the sun-bright cliff they flock and slumber there.

VII

On confines of both realms a doubtful race
From either element their being draw;
On their foul gait, and lineament, and face,
By nature's self, and by mount Sinai's law,
Is stamp'd abomination;—things of awe,
Loathing, or wonder;—witnesses design'd
How God admixtures hates, our nature's flaw,
That souls who in His kingdom place would find,
Must free the wing and leave their lower selves behind.
268

VIII

But see those angel-painters, which have been
So busy in mosaics of the deep
'Mid the shell-homes,—on mount or valley green
Are now 'mid nests, in cavern, rock, or tree,
With pencil and enamel sporting free;
With order, without order, strange and wild!
Wonder-wrought nests, wherein Philosophy
May stoop to gaze together with the child,
Tints grain'd indelible where new-born nature smil'd!

IX

Thence to the light of day burst from the shell,
Profusion on profusion, pour'd apace
Exuberant wings which knew wherein to dwell,
Mount, vale, or glen, or waste, aerial space,
Or shore, or play'd on Ocean's silvery face
With all his streams and wells, exulting pour'd
According to their kinds, and chose their place;
Within, without answer'd sweet music's chord,
As with its silent law moved the instinctive Word.
269

X

That Word convey'd the universal soul
According to their kinds, which power might prove
From age to age to urge and to control;
And what are those delights of vernal love
Which poets sing of, which through stream and grove
Sweetly and strongly through all nature reigns?
'Tis all that Voice of blessing from above
“Bring forth and multiply!” which still remains
Though dash'd with sinful taints and mix'd with sinful pains.

XI

Spring's golden-harness'd stars that law in Heaven
Read as they pass on their high course, and thence
From year to year on their return 'tis given
To rain on earth their genial influence,
Which men call love as seen by sight and sense.
'Tis but that Voice, and what that Voice hath blest.
Thence are those ways beyond intelligence,
Those marvels which surround each feather'd nest,
And arts beyond all art of the parental breast.
270

XII

Strange was the jubilee which on that day
Thrill'd through the regions of this claustral womb,
Which hems us round beneath the starry ray,—
This earth and sea and sky-encircled gloom,
The cradle of all living and the tomb;—
Rejoicing and rejoicing; 'twas the spring,
The spring of springs, in beauty, joy and bloom,
With swarms on swarms, with feet, or fin, or wing;
They creep, they swim, they fly, or walk, or soar and sing.

XIII

Who those aerial tribes and their retreat
On sky or grove or ground,—what tongue can tell
Their buoyant and elastic frames, replete
With air-embosom'd sails that shrink or swell,
And fit them in ethereal homes to dwell;—
The beak, the talon, and the tuneful throat,
Where music hath her overflowing well
Of modulation sweet and vernal note;
And how the insect tribe on sounds harmonious float?
271

XIV

Nature is teeming with their auguries
Did we but hear aright; no need of wand
To quarter out the Heaven, for all the skies
Are full of Deity; in every land
With their own tongues, which Angels understand,
Of morn, and eve, of seasons and their change,
And of their dear Creator's bounteous hand
They sing; one great “Te Deum” new and strange,
One deep Doxology through all the tuneful range.

XV

Creatures of God, that fly or swim abroad,
Heaven's harbingers, what lessons do ye bring
To earth-worn pilgrim on his heavenward road?
On Jordan's banks ye birds that fly and sing,
Ye fish below that haunt the sacred spring:
Ye which in Galilean waters dwell,
Or on that chosen Sea your shadows fling;
The mysteries of your being deign to tell,
And let me from your banks bear home the scallop shell.
272

XVI

When first the Heavens were open'd from above
It was on sacred Jordan's ancient flood;
The Spirit came descending like a Dove;
And Dove-like on the waters seem'd to brood—
On waters—when He hallow'd them for good;
Thence sanctified are creatures of the wing,
And with celestial emblems all endued.
What lessons shall this Day to wisdom bring,
To hallow its return by sea, or lake, or spring?

XVII

Lift up your eyes, ye pilgrims, see your God!
'Twas on this day that on the clouds sublime
Ascending He the stair ethereal trod.
His are the eagle-souls which through all time
Throng round the Crucified, the aerial clime
Surmounting, beyond reach of earthly wing.
And little ones which free from care and crime
Look not before and after, rise and sing,
And thankful own His hand whate'er His hand may bring.
273

XVIII

Ye worms of earth, lift up your hearts and eyes,
This is the day when Christ went up above,
And we with Him find wings and upward rise.
His is the Dove which hid in thickest grove
Lowers its meek head, then pours its note of love,
On top oak-bough oft heard at interval;
His the home-bird which in snow-veil'd alcove
Forces his way, or in the wintry hall,
To thrill aloud his chaunt so clear and musical.

XIX

His all the tuneful host; the speckled breast
Amid the green-bough'd elm-tree seen hard by,
Lifting his morning chaunt above the rest;
Until the Blackbird joins the minstrelsy
With his shrill pipe that fills the choral sky.
His is the Lark with which the welkin rings,
Higher she mounts and higher, yet more high,
And flings melodious matins from her wings,
Lies lowliest on the ground, yet nearest Heaven she sings.
274

XX

Sweet bird, with all thy soul to praises given,
Who on the blue ethereal poised at ease,
Lost from men's sight dost converse hold with Heaven;
And looking down on man's proud palaces
Pity us groveling worms whom such things please:
Then growing sad and mute from that calm height
Descend to earth and earth's necessities!
Thy lesson who can fail to read aright,
Which ere we spell it o'er hath entered ear and sight?

XXI

On this day He ascended; His are they,
With Him they soar and sing and never fail;
He hallows them to wisdom on this day—
His feathered angels; His the Nightingale
Which by the ivied casement in the vale,
By haunts of men that some perchance may hear,
Renews night-long his sweet and solemn tale,—
That when men sleep celestial guards are near,
Singing their sleepless hymns too pure for mortal ear.
275

XXII

But who shall tell the lore to sight or sound,
In their wild instincts varied infinite,
Of all the feather'd families around?
Moon-loving Owl, he on his noiseless flight,
Seen like a ghostly spirit of the night,
Speaks some unearthly presence brooding near.
The Falcon train'd to war; the hovering Kite,
Making the mountain solitudes more drear,
While with him on the wing the raven troops appear.

XXIII

To Him th'young ravens call: when heard aloud
The falling crag echoes 'mid mountains high,
From his dark house within the stormy cloud
Answers the Eagle's solitary cry,
The monarch of the mist, and then sails by.
The Bustard runs and rises on the wind;
The Ostrich skims the plains of Araby
And mocks the horse and rider left behind,
A dromedary bird, and swift as mountain hind.
276

XXIV

His are they all. Who bids the blast breathe low,
And spare the Halcyon brooding on her nest,
Or gives to her the coming calm to know?
Who in the instincts of the creature's breast,
E'en while it follows nature's own behest,
Such signs of good and evil interwove;
The loyal heart—the stedfast faith impress'd?
While without law, yet full of law they rove,
A law unto themselves, and all that law is love.

XXV

Thine too that bird amid the homes of men
That chaunts the watches of the waning night,
Summons to watch and pray, and wash again
Our faults with tearful sorrow; heard aright
Of Peter and his fall. In beauty's light
Walking at ease the Peacock, woodland-bred,
Plume-crown'd, with snaky neck comes soft to sight,
Starr'd rainbow eyes o'er-canopy his head,
Sailing with outstretch'd state and earth-disdaining tread.
277

XXVI

Thine are the fowls that neither sow nor reap,
Nor gather into barns, but great and small
Look up to Thee, whether they wake or sleep,
Look up to Thee, the Maker of them all;
Not one without Thee to the ground can fall.
Ethereal-minded, how around they preach,
Angelic, Evangelic their sweet call,
Heaven's witnesses, and spirit-like their speech;
Wise should we be indeed to practise all ye teach.

XXVII

Thine are those travelling herds that range aloof,
Plume thick on plume, the aerial caravan,
With wedge-like march right onward o'er Heaven's roof,
They aid alternate wings, rear, flank, or van,
Beating the air with multitudinous fan.
A still small Voice in Heaven o'er sea and land
Marshals their pathless ways. O heedless man,
The Crane and Swallow know their Lord's command,
Man will not hear His voice, nor see His guiding hand.
278

XXVIII

Ye winged pilgrims, which no dwelling own
But in the flying seasons, and resort
To all our eaves and haunts, your stay make known
By stranger plume, or voice, or feather'd sport,
Or holding on green lawn your transient court;—
Why are ye pour'd around us, but to tell
In these your sojournings, so sure, so short,
That we like you should here as exiles dwell,
Bound to an unseen home like tented Israel?

XXIX

Black-throated stranger, snow-capp'd guest of spring,
Perch'd on the shrub thou art one moment seen,
Then with sweet note and ruddy underwing
Glancing in outspread flight from green to green,
Eyest me with stranger look; where hast thou been?
With what Angelic burden art thou here?
Enlivening with thy stay the garden scene,
Just come and gone, we know not whence nor where,
Yet piping thy soft note, “stranger and sojourner.”
279

XXX

The Swallow—should she hear that trumpet call
From stars in Heaven which summons her away,
Whate'er it be at the Autumnal fall,
Will leave her unfledg'd nest, and stern obey
The summons to depart, nor knows delay.
What is this spell which o'er maternal love
Hath dignity the gentlest heart to sway,
Emblem of Him Whose calling from above
Mightier than kindred ties or home-delights must prove?

XXXI

What shall we say of those that day and night,
Whether they wake or sleep, on airy sail
Still dwell aloof in everlasting flight?
To higher heavens when winds below prevail
They rise, and rest above the stormy gale
On cross-like plumes: such Faith's angelic wing,
Which ne'er on wood or water, mount or vale
Found rest, but hath within the elastic spring
Of high affections borne above each earthly thing.
280

XXXII

Lo, trailing plumes, like a gold-spangled shower
Glittering with gems or crimson-painted skies,
From Indian isle to isle, a flying power
Of light and beauty,—bird of Paradise!
To calms aerial will he sink or rise
To keep his plumes, of Eden duly styled.
On gifted bards rich Nature thus supplies
Wings dipp'd in Heaven which summer sunsets gild;
Blest they who keep the same in spirit undefil'd.

XXXIII

But dearer far to men that honour'd bird,
Albeit rude of form, emblem benign
Of filial piety; whose cry is heard
High up in Heaven, when true to vernal sign
And beck'ning Hand unseen, he waves his line
O'er the dark pyramids; the live cloud moves
Its shower of wings to sacred Palestine,
Carmel and Eastern isles,—'mid city groves,
And walks of Moslem men, the Stork which mercy loves.
281

XXXIV

Yea, Love is multiplied 'mid sternest things;
The Eagle stirs afloat her new-fledg'd nest,
Flutters above and spreads expansive wings,
And bears them on her plumes. God on that breast
So pitiless to others hath impress'd
A parent's tenderness, and lodgèd there
'Mid mountain solitudes in our unrest
An image, how His own protecting care,
Himself unto Himself, on eagle wings would bear.

XXXV

Before our path o'er mountain, heath, or moor,
The Lapwing with strange feats, wondrous in wile,
The foot intrusive from her nestling store
Lures off with cries and feints; that as we smile
Caught by her guileful simpleness, the while
Heart-moving signals of the creature's love
Our harder thoughts to wisdom may beguile;
There is a heart whose treasure is above,
Which as the serpent wise, is simple as the dove.
282

XXXVI

“Come unto Me.” Lo, yonder 'neath the wood
The homestead bird with instantaneous cry
With mantling plumes hath gather'd all her brood,
Ere yet above her head the untaught eye
Hath caught the quivering hawk that hovers nigh.
He sees what we behold not, and His call
We hear, alas! but heed not, or we sigh
To see the dangers, and we fear to fall,
Yet haste not 'neath that wing outspread to harbour all.

XXXVII

Life is with death commingling, from the Whale
That makes the sea a cauldron in his might,
Or Condor with his outstretch'd plumy sail,
To those quick forms, like particles of light,
Which wave their burnish'd cloud in Evening bright;
Numbers innumerable, insects rife,
Rejoicing rise to regions of our sight:
Or all the wave is luminous with life,
One animated mass teeming with joy and strife.
283

XXXVIII

Through seas, earth, air,—all realms of night and day,—
Life is by death sustain'd, and scaly fin,
And feather'd pinion are outspread for prey;
Eloquent world! without us and within
All things bear stamp of our primeval sin,
With pain and death and all their family;
But ye,—O wondrous grace such love to win!—
Bear sin and sin's remedial mystery,
For guilty men to live that Innocence must die.

XXXIX

And who shall speak what power inscrutable,
When on the Afric desert falls the slain,
Brings down the Vulture troop with charmèd spell?
From far like specks beyond the mount or main
Coming to sight on the ethereal plain,
More near and near careering; eddying round
More and more near in hurried flight they gain,
With eagle whoop descending, on the ground
And on the unburied dead with talon'd greed they bound.
284

XL

Emblems of sin and men by sin defil'd!
We search their natures for some power allied
To smell, sound, sight; in creatures soul and wild
What if Redemption's mystery may hide
In that instinctive soul which is their guide?
May shadow forth the wonders of that grace
Which brings the Saints around the Crucified?
They flock to Him throughout all time and space,
Men marvel at the power which in them finds such place.

XLI

His death our life; His Body fills our veins
With spiritual blood, lifts up with eagle-wings,
And the soul's flight above the world sustains.
Thus where her sternest shadow nature flings
The meek rejoice; to all their food He brings;
Man to his work until the evening goes;
In Him, to Him the feather'd morning sings;
And wearied eve in cedars finds repose;
In fir-trees ever green the Stork her dwelling knows.
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