CXXXVII.TO LITTLE ALICE.
I
If thou couldst be a bird, what bird wouldst thou be?
A frolicsome gull on the billowy sea,
Screaming and wailing when stormy winds rave,
Or anchored, white thing! on the merry green wave?
II
Or an eagle aloft in the blue ether dwelling,
Free of the coves of the hoary Helvellyn,
Who is up in the sunshine when we are in shower,
And could reach our loved ocean in less than an hour?
III
Or a heron that haunts the Wallachian edge
Of the barbarous Danube mid forests of sedge,
And hears the rude waters through dreary swamps flowing,
And the cry of the wild swans, and buffalos lowing?
IV
Or a stork on a mosque's broken pillar in peace
By some famous old stream in the bright land of Greece,
A sweet-mannered householder! waiving his state
Now and then in some kind little toil for his mate?
V
Or a murmuring dove at Stamboul, buried deep
In the long cypress woods where the infidels sleep,
Whose leaf-muffled voice is the soul of the seas,
That hath passed from the Bosphorus into the trees?
VI
Or a heath-bird that lies on the Cheviot moor,
Where the wet shining earth is as bare as a floor,
Who mutters glad sounds though his joys are but few,—
Yellow moon, windy sunshine, and skies of cold blue?
VII
Or if thy man's heart worketh in thee at all,
Perchance thou would'st dwell by some bold baron's hall,
A black glossy rook working early and late,
Like a labouring man on the baron's estate?
VIII
Or a linnet who builds in the close hawthorn bough,
Where her small frightened eyes may be seen looking through;
Who heeds not, fond mother! the oxlips that shine
On the hedge-bank beneath, or the glazed celandine.
IX
Or a swallow that flieth the sunny world over
The true home of spring and spring-flowers to discover;
Who, go where he will, takes away on his wings
Good words from mankind for the bright thoughts he brings?
X
But what! can these pictures of strange wingèd mirth
Make the child to forget that she walks on the earth?
Dost thou feel at thy sides as though wings were to start
From some place where they lie folded up in thy heart?
XI
Then love the green things in thy first simple youth,
And the beasts, birds, and fishes with heart and in truth,
And fancy shall pay thee thy love back in skill;—
Thou shalt be all the birds of the air at thy will!
