 | Poems at Home and Abroad |  |
72
The Birthday of the Singers
Dunnabeck, 21st May, 1908.
The cuckoo cried across the Rydal mere,
The little warbler made the birch-tree thrill
With passionate words of greeting and goodwill;
Afar from ruddy Loughrigg lambs called clear,
On the near knoll the comfortable steer
Lowed, and the shepherd whistled up the hill;
Then thought I, Lord, what joy these sounds instil,
What sense of fullest peace and rest is here!
The little warbler made the birch-tree thrill
With passionate words of greeting and goodwill;
Afar from ruddy Loughrigg lambs called clear,
On the near knoll the comfortable steer
Lowed, and the shepherd whistled up the hill;
Then thought I, Lord, what joy these sounds instil,
What sense of fullest peace and rest is here!
But sudden in the pauses of the stream
That all night long its lullaby had made,
I heard such notes of wild triumphant mirth
Above a nest wherein five eggs were laid,
As made all other joy but sadness seem—
It was the song of life new-born to earth.
That all night long its lullaby had made,
I heard such notes of wild triumphant mirth
Above a nest wherein five eggs were laid,
As made all other joy but sadness seem—
It was the song of life new-born to earth.
| Poems at Home and Abroad | |