University of Virginia Library


27

UNKNOWN SONGSTERS

The song-bird drops; the bird-song never dies.
The black frost strikes; the throstles's wee heart stops;
But Spring brings back the song, and none surmise
The song-bird drops.
Songsters there be, who never reach the tops
Of Fame's high boughs, but whose low melodies
Blend with the deeper shadows of the copse.

28

They die; yet song endures: we hear it rise
From other unknown throats. Death reaps his crops,
But new notes wake, although without a prize
The song-bird drops.
E.