Minor Poems, including Napoleon By Bernard Barton. Second Edition, with Additions |
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ON THE
RETURN OF SUMMER BIRDS. |
 | Minor Poems, including Napoleon |  |
260
ON THE RETURN OF SUMMER BIRDS.
Return, return to your haunts again,
And greet their shades with your sweetest strain;
Inhabit once more your cherish'd groves,
And renew your summer songs and loves.
And greet their shades with your sweetest strain;
Inhabit once more your cherish'd groves,
And renew your summer songs and loves.
What need ye to add to your lovely mirth?
Yours is the water, the air, and earth;
Woke under the foliage by zephyr's sigh,
With songs for the ear, and tints for the eye.
Yours is the water, the air, and earth;
Woke under the foliage by zephyr's sigh,
With songs for the ear, and tints for the eye.
Your wants are few; ye alike disdain
The vices of luxury's slothful reign,
And the rigour of laws that men revere,
But which you in your liberty need not fear.
The vices of luxury's slothful reign,
And the rigour of laws that men revere,
But which you in your liberty need not fear.
261
A stroke of the wing is your rudest law
To keep a coquetting lover in awe;
And so simple your toilette, your ruffled plumes
A touch of the beak with beauty illumes.
To keep a coquetting lover in awe;
And so simple your toilette, your ruffled plumes
A touch of the beak with beauty illumes.
Though to shores remote your flight you bear,
Ye are travellers blithe, and not exiles there;
The grove where you plighted your former vows
Sees you build again in its leafy boughs;
Ye are travellers blithe, and not exiles there;
The grove where you plighted your former vows
Sees you build again in its leafy boughs;
The same thick shade in its solitude
Hears your soft vows of love renew'd,
And the same sweet echoes lingering nigh
Once more to your joyful songs reply.
Hears your soft vows of love renew'd,
And the same sweet echoes lingering nigh
Once more to your joyful songs reply.
| Minor Poems, including Napoleon | |