This dog only crept and crept Other dogs of loyal cheer And if one or two quick tears Up he This dog, if a friendly voice Therefore to this dog will I, E. B. Browning. ON MY DOVE. I HAD a dove, and the sweet dove died; Oh, what could it grieve for? Its feet were tied Why would you leave me, sweet bird! why? Why, pretty thing! would you not live with me? G J. Keats. INVITATION TO BIRDS. YE gentle warblers! hither fly, Here freely hop from spray to spray, Amid this cool transparent rill, That trickles down the glade, Here bathe your plumes, here drink your fill, No schoolboy rude, to mischief prone, Hither the vocal thrush repairs; The goldfinch dreads no slimy snares Sweet nightingale! oh, quit thy haunt, Let not the harmless redbreast fear, And seek a safe asylum here, With one that loves his home. My trees for you, ye artless tribe, For you these cherries I protect, Sweet is the fruit that you have pecked, But sweeter far your song. Graves. THE PARROT. THE deep affections of the breast, A Parrot from the Spanish main, Full young, and early caged, came o'er, To spicy groves, where he had won For these he changed the smoke of turf, But, petted, in our climate cold He lived and chatted many a day; At last, when blind and seeming dumb, He hailed the bird in Spanish speech, Campbell. |