Conversations introducing poetry :: :: University of Virginia Library

Minutest of the feather'd kind,
Possessing every charm combin'd,
Nature, in forming thee, design'd
That thou should'st be
A proof within how little space,
She can comprise such perfect grace,
Rendering thy lovely fairy race,
Beauty's epitome.

Those burnish'd colours to bestow,
Her pencil in the heavenly bow
She dipp'd; and made thy plumes to glow
With every hue

That in the dancing sun-beam plays;
And with the ruby's vivid blaze,
Mingled the emerald's lucid rays
With halcyon blue.

Then placed thee under genial skies,
Where flowers and shrubs spontaneous rise,
With richer fragrance, bolder dyes,
By her endued;
And bade thee pass thy happy hours
In tamarind shades, and palmy bowers,
Extracting from unfailing flowers
Ambrosial food.

There, lovely Bee-bird! may'st thou rove
Thro' spicy vale, and citron grove,
And woo, and win thy fluttering love
With plume so bright;
There rapid fly, more heard than seen,
Mid orange-boughs of polished green,
With glowing fruit, and flowers between
Of purest white.

There feed, and take thy balmy rest,
There weave thy little cotton nest,
And may no cruel hand molest
Thy timid bride;
Nor those bright changeful plumes of thine
Be offer'd on the unfeeling shrine,
Where some dark beauty loves to shine
In gaudy pride.

Nor may her sable lover's care
Add to the baubles in her hair
Thy dazzling feathers rich and rare;
And thou, poor bird,
For this inhuman purpose bleed;
While gentle hearts abhor the deed,
And mercy's trembling voice may plead,
But plead unheard!

Such triflers should be taught to know,
Not all the hues thy plumes can show
Become them like the conscious glow
Of modesty:
And that not half so lovely seems
The ray that from the diamond gleams,
As the pure gem that trembling beams
In pity's eye!