University of Virginia Library

4

5   Till of a sudden,
May-be kill'd, unknown to her mate,
One forenoon the she-bird crouch'd not on the nest,
Nor return'd that afternoon, nor the next,
Nor ever appear'd again.
6  And thenceforward, all summer, in the sound of the      sea,
And at night, under the full of the moon, in calmer      weather,

201

Over the hoarse surging of the sea,
Or flitting from brier to brier by day,
I saw, I heard at intervals, the remaining one, the      he-bird,
The solitary guest from Alabama.