-No; not to roost upon the throne, would I Renounce the woods, the mountains, and the sky.

THE RAVEN.

Thin is thy plumage, death is in thy croak;
Raven, come down from that majestic oak.

When I was hatch'd, my father set this tree, An acorn; and its fall I hope to see,

A century after thou hast ceased to be.

THE PARROT.

Camest thou from India, popinjay,-and why?
-To make thy children open ear and eye,
Gaze on my feathers, wonder at my talk,
And think 'tis almost time for Poll to walk.

THE MAGPIE.

Magpie, thou too hast learn'd by rote to speak Words without meaning, through thy uncouth beak. -Words have I learn'd? and without meaning too? No wonder, sir, for I was taught by you.

THE CORN-CRAKE.

Art thou a sound, and nothing but a sound?
-Go round the field, and round the field, and

round,

You'll find my voice for ever changing ground;
And while your ear pursues my creaking cry,
You look as if you heard it with your eye.

THE STORK.

Stork, why were human virtues given to thee?

-That human beings might resemble me;

Kind to my offspring, to my partner true,
And duteous to my parents,-what are you?

THE WOODPECKER.

Rap, rap, rap, rap, I hear thy knocking bill,
Then thy strange outcry, when the woods are still.
-Thus am I ever labouring for my bread,
And thus give thanks to find my table spread.

THE HAWK.

A life at every meal, rapacious hawk!
Spare helpless innocence !

-Troth, pleasant talk!
Yon swallow snaps more lives up in a day
Than in a twelvemonth I could take away.
But hark, most gentle censor, in your ear,
A word, a whisper, -you-are you quite clear?
Creation's groans, through ocean, earth, and sky,
Ascend from all that walk, or swim, or fly.

VULTURES.

Abominable harpies, spare the dead.

We only clear the field which man has spread; On which should Heaven its hottest vengeance

rain?

You slay the living, we but strip the slain.

THE HUMMING BIRD.

Art thou a bird, or bee, or butterfly?

-Each and all three.- A bird in shape am I, A bee collecting sweets from bloom to bloom, A butterfly in brilliancy of plume.

THE EAGLE.

Art thou the king of birds, proud eagle, say?
-I am; my talons and my beak bear sway;
A greater king than I, if thou wouldst be,
Govern thy tongue, but let thy thoughts be free.

THE PELICAN.

Bird of the wilderness, what is thy name?
-The pelican!—go, take the trump of fame,
And if thou give the honour due to me,
The world may talk a little more of thee.

THE HERON.

Stock-still upon that stone, from day to day,
I see thee watch the river for thy prey.

- Yes, I'm the tyrant here; but when I rise, The well-train'd falcon braves me in the skies; Then comes the tug of war, of strength and skill, He dies, impaled on my updarted bill,

Or, powerless in his grasp, my doom I meet,
Dropt as a trophy at his master's feet.

THE BIRD OF PARADISE.

The bird of paradise!

That name I bear,

Though I am nothing but a bird of air:

Thou art a child of earth, and yet to thee,
Lost and recover'd, paradise is free:

Oh! that such glory were reserved for me!

THE OSTRICH.

Hast thou expell'd the mother from thy breast, And to the desert's mercies left thy nest?

Ah! no, the mother in me knows her part; Yon glorious sun is warmer than my heart; And when to light he brings my hungry brood, He spreads for them the wilderness with food.

TIME:

A RHAPSODY.

Sed fugit, interea, fugit irreparabile tempus.

'Tis a mistake: time flies not,

VIRG. Georg. iii. 284.

He only hovers on the wing: Once born, the moment dies not, 'Tis an immortal thing;

While all is change beneath the sky,

Fix'd like the sun as learned sages prove,

Though from our moving world he seems to move, 'Tis time stands still, and we that fly.

There is no past; from nature's birth,
Days, months, years, ages, till the end
Of these revolving heavens and earth,
All to one centre tend;

And, having reach'd it late or soon,
Converge,- as in a lens, the rays,
Caught from the fountain-light of noon,
Blend in a point that blinds the gaze:
-What has been is, what is shall last;
The present is the focus of the past;
The future, perishing as it arrives,
Becomes the present, and itself survives.