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43

THE BIRD OF PARADISE.

O lovely Bird of Paradise,
I'll go where thou dost go!
Rise higher yet, and higher yet,
For a stormy wind doth blow.
Now up above the tempest
We are sailing in the calm,
Amid the golden sunshine,
And where the air is balm.
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See, far below us rolling
The storm-cloud black and wide;
The fury of its raging
Is as an angry tide!
O gentle Bird of Paradise,
Thy happy lot I'll share;
And go where'er thou goest
On, through the sunny air!
Whate'er the food thou eatest
Bird, I will eat it too,
And ere it reach the stormy earth,
Will drink with thee the dew!
My father and my mother,
I'll leave them for thy sake;
And where thy nest is builded,
My pleasant home will make!
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Is it woven of the sunshine,
And the fragrance of the spice;
And cradled round with happiness?
Sweet Bird of Paradise!
O take me, take me to it,
Wherever it may be,
For far into the sunshine
I'll fly away with thee!
Thus sung an Eastern poet,
A many years ago;
Now, of the Bird of Paradise
A truer tale we know.
We know the nest it buildeth
Within the forest green;
And many and many a traveller
Its very eggs hath seen.
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Yet, lovely Bird of Paradise,
They take no charm from thee;
Thou art a creature of the earth,
And not a mystery!
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