Fables in Song :: :: University of Virginia Library

First, wool and hair from sheep and cow:
Then twig and straw, to bind them fast,
From thicket and from thatch: and now
A little nest is built at last.

3

From out that little nest shall rise,
When woods are warm, a living song,
A music mixt with light, that flies
Thro' fluttering shade the leaves among.
vol. ii.

4

Its home? straw, twig, and wool, and hair.
Mere nothings, these, to house or herd.
Who made them something, made them fair,
Making them all her own? The bird.

5

O little bird, take everything,
And build thy nest without rebuff,
And, when thy nest is builded, sing!
For who can praise thy song enough?

6

And some believe (believe they wrong?)
If like the bird the bard could sing,
That, like the bird, fit home for Song
The bard would find in everything

7

By casual grace of common chance
From house and herd, from thick and thatch,
Assign'd for Song's inheritance
Had Song the gift that grace to catch.

8

Such things I found, by passers-by
As rubbish from the roadside thrust;
Which poets, seeking poesy,
Disdain'd to rescue from the dust.

9

Yet here they are—not rubbish now
I fain would hope. Do critics stare,
Reserve applause, and rub the brow?
Oh that a little bird I were!