University of Virginia Library

Charade No. 13.

My first had spread her darksome wing
O'er all the loveliness of spring;
My third arose with mournful wail—
The young leaves told their first sad tale,

268

The old oak groaned, the flowerets sighed,
The hawthorn bloom was scattered wide:
But ere my gloomy first had passed,
When silent was my third at last,
My whole awoke the moonlight dell
To list the sweet tale she could tell;
Then mingled, in strange harmony,
Silence and sweetest melody.
‘Your second, why such strange omission?’
'Tis but a tiny preposition.