 | Wood-notes and Church-bells |  |
261
ON A SEAGULL FLYING INLAND.
Bird of the buoyant wing and snow-white breast,Floating serenely over hill and dale,
Far from thy billowy home, I bid thee hail!
Here in this woodland nook alight and rest.
Strange thoughts of murmuring waves with milky crest
Thou bringest from afar—of freshening gale,
And mighty sea-breadths swept by scudding sail—
Oh! how unlike this peaceful landscape blest.
So to the tranquil, meditative mind
Comes some stray fancy or some “vague emotion,”
Light as a bird and fitful as the wind;
Bringing dim hints from that mysterious ocean,
Whose billows break upon the unknown shore
Loud as the voice of God for evermore.
| Wood-notes and Church-bells | |