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The Poetical Works of Ebenezer Elliott

Edited by his Son Edwin Elliott ... A New and Revised Edition: Two Volumes

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220

THE SUN'S BIRD.

The cloud of the rain is beneath thee. Thou singest,
Palaced in glory; but Morn hath begun
A dark day for man, while the sunbeams thou wingest,
Bird of the Sun! Bird of the Sun!
They hear thee, but see thee not—sleepy bees hear thee,
While under sad boughs the sad rivulets run;
But thou art all music! care cannot get near thee,
Bird of the Sun! Bird of the Sun!
And when from Light's fields thou descendest, and over
Thy nest the wide gloom spreads its canopy dun,
How sweet will thy sleep be among the sweet clover,
Bird of the Sun! Bird of the Sun!
And, there, a white network of dewdrops the fairies,
To chain leaf and flower, in a frolic have spun;
While nigh thy dear home the tipp'd ear of the hare is,
Bird of the Sun! Bird of the Sun!