THE ROBIN

IN the field where the green 's mix'd with flowers,
Like the leaflets that flow around bowers,

I love to admire a pleasant May morning,
The Robin companion, th' Lark giving warning.

The air gliding by me enrich'd with perfume,
Kind nature's prescription for sickness and gloom,
The serene in th' azure unhurt by a cloud;
Mild zephyrus whisp'ring, but scarcely aloud.

Once, such a morn smiling, I hied me abroad,
The Sun in the East yet, the dew scarcely trod ;
So sweetly the birds sung-it seem'd as delusion,
Enchantment's assistant, was shedding profusion.

Ah! who could have thought that man had a passion,
Would make him disturb these joys of creation,
But, painful, we taste the effects of the cause,

Which Eden once witness'd with sorrowful pause.

H

With those whose orisons pure were ascending,

Praises as purely a Robin was blending,

In sportive meanderings gliding around,

Brushing hasty the dew off, then leaving the ground.

So playfully sportive does innocence rove,
With gentleness, meek as the eye of the dove,

But he met with his fate-the arrow of death

Smote him-flutt'ring, striving, and panting for breath,

Ah! instantly hush'd each melodious swell,

Music sweetly begun to sad stillness fell.

Fear started the songsters and scatter'd their flight; The orisons ceas'd-'twas silent as night,

A plaintive complaining now sadden'd my ear,
'Twas the partner, distracted, flown fearlessly near-
Despairing-she sat on a bough o'er my head-
Death flew and she fell-by the side of the dead.

THE CONTRAST.

VICE I have seen in hideous mein;

And virtue too in beauty :

'Tis fairer than the damask rose ;

'Tis viler than where Lethe flows:

'Tis brighter than the morning star;

'Tis blacker than the brunt of war:

Enriching as the milky dew;

More baneful than the Upas true :*

'Tis charming as the month of May;
Forbidding as a demon fray :

Pleasant as Robins, and tender as doves :

Darker than midnight and bitter it proves :

* The Bohan Upas, a tree known (at least in fable) for slaying every animal that comes within a short distance of it.

Lovely as summer and smiling as spring :

Rougher than troubles which painfulness bring

Mild as a lamb-light as a doe

Stronger than tempests in scattering woe.

The cushat mourns his partner gone,

The monarch mourns his vanquish'd throne:

The lark in lea proclaims its fears,

Man for his first born mourns with tears.

Come like a vision of the morn,

Embodied and sincere ;

Come wake my soul at early dawn,

And shine at evining clear :

Go like the demon of the storm,

The dark avenger dire,

Hide thee in malice's monster form,

And be imprison'd there.

THE CHRISTIAN AFFLICTED.

GOD, on high, beholds the pious man ;

He sees him buffet back the waves,

And smiles upon him—

Then with strength his own

Hastens to rescue-sudden the billows cease,

The tempest stills and airs of bliss flow round;

The soul, rejoicing, rises in the calm,

And, looking upward, sees its GOD its friend.