ON FINDING THE FEATHERS OF A LINNET
SCATTERED ON THE GROUND IN A SOLITARY WALK.
These little relics, hapless bird!
That strew the lonely vale,
With silent eloquence record
Thy melancholy tale.
Like Autumn's leaves, that rustle round
From every withering tree,
These plumes, dishevell'd o'er the ground,
Alone remain of thee.
Some hovering kite's rapacious maw
Hath been thy timeless grave:
No pitying eye thy murder saw,
No friend appear'd to save.
Heaven's thunder smite the guilty foe!
No:—spare the tyrant's breath,
Till wintry winds, and famine slow,
Avenge thy cruel death!
But every feather of thy wing
Be quicken'd where it lies,
And at the soft return of Spring,
A fragrant cowslip rise!
Few were thy days, thy pleasures few,
Simple and unconfined;
On sunbeams every moment flew,
Nor left a care behind.
In Spring to build thy curious nest,
And woo thy merry bride,
Carol and fly, and sport and rest,
Was all thy humble pride.
Happy beyond the lot of kings,
Thy bosom knew no smart,
Till the last pang, that tore the strings
From thy dissever'd heart.
When late to secret griefs a prey,
I wander'd slowly here,
Wild from the copse an artless lay,
Like magic, won mine ear.
Perhaps 'twas thy last evening song,
That exquisitely stole
In sweetest melody along,
And harmonised my soul.
Now, blithe musician! now no more
The mellow pipe resounds,
But jarring drums at distance roar,
And yonder howl the hounds:—
The hounds, that through the echoing wood
The panting hare pursue;
The drums, that wake the cry of blood,
—The voice of glory too!
Here at my feet thy frail remains,
Unwept, unburied, lie,
Like victims on embattled plains,
Forsaken where they die.
Yet could the Muse, whose strains rehearse
Thine unregarded doom,
Enshrine thee in immortal verse,
Kings should not scorn thy tomb.
Though brief as thine my tuneful date,
When wandering near this spot,
The sad memorials of thy fate
Shall never be forgot.
While doom'd the lingering pangs to feel,
Of many a nameless fear,
One truant sigh from these I'll steal,
And drop one willing tear.
1796.
