A melancholy murmur through the whole. 'Tis love creates their melody, and all This waste of mufic is the voice of love;
Can dictate, and in courtship to their mates
That ev❜n to birds, and beasts, the tender arts
Of pleafing teaches. Hence the glossy kind
Try every winning way inventive love
Pour forth their little fouls. First, wide around,
With distant awe, in airy rings they rove,
Endeavouring by a thousand tricks to catch
The cunning, conscious, half-averted glance
Of their regardlefs charmer. Should the feem
Softening the least approvance to bestow,
Their colours burnish, and, by hope inspir❜d,
They brisk advance; then, on a fudden ftruck,
Retire diforder'd; then again approach;
In fond rotation fpread the spotted wing,
And shiver every feather with defire.
Connubial leagues agreed, to the deep woods
They hafte away, all as their fancy leads,
Pleasure, or food, or fecret fafety prompts;
That Nature's great command may
Nor all the sweet fenfations they perceive
Indulg'd in vain. Some to the holly-hedge
Neftling repair, and to the thicket fome;
Some to the rude protection of the thorn
Commit their feeble offspring: the cleft tree
Offers its kind concealment to a few,
Their food its infects, and its moss their nefts.
Others apart far in the graffy dale,
Or roughening waste, their humble texture weave. 640
But moft in woodland folitudes delight,
In unfrequented glooms, or fhaggy banks,
Steep, and divided by a babbling brook,
And bound with clay together. Now 'tis nought
But restlefs hurry through the busy air,
Whose murmurs soothe them all the live-long day,
When by kind duty fix'd. Among the roots
Of hazel, pendent o'er the plaintive stream,
They frame the first foundation of their domes;
Dry sprigs of trees, in artful fabric laid,
Beat by unnumber'd wings. The swallow sweeps
The flimy pool, to build his hanging house
Intent. And often, from the careless back
Of herds and flocks a thousand tugging bills
Pluck hair and wool; and oft, when unobferv'd,
Steal from the barn a ftraw: till soft and warm,
Clean, and complete, their habitation grows.
As thus the patient dam affiduous fits, Not to be tempted from her tender task,
Or by fharp hunger, or by smooth delight,
Though the whole loofen'd Spring around her blows.
Her fympathizing lover takes his ftand
High on th' opponent bank, and ceaseless fings
The tedious time away; or else fupplies
Her place a moment, while she sudden flits
To pick the scanty meal. Th' appointed time
With pious toil fulfil'd, the callow young,
Warm'd and expanded into perfect life,
Their brittle bondage break, and come to light,
A helpless family, demanding food
With conftant clamour: O what paffions then,
What melting fentiments of kindly care,
On the new parents feize! Away they fly
Affectionate, and undefiring bear
The moft delicious morfel to their young;
Which equally distributed, again
The search begins. Ev'n fo a gentle pair,
By fortune funk, but form'd of generous mold,
And charm'd with cares beyond the vulgar breast,
In fome lone cot amid the distant woods,
Sustain❜d alone by providential Heaven,
Oft, as they weeping eye their infant train,
Check their own appetites, and give them all.
Nor toil alone they fcorn: exalting love,
By the great Father of the Spring inspir'd,
Gives inftant courage to the fearful race,
And to the fimple art. With ftealthy wing,
Should fome rude foot their woody haunts moleft,
Amid a neighbouring bush they filent drop,
And whirring thence, as if alarm'd, deceive
Th' unfeeling school-boy. Hence, around the head Of wandering fwain, the white-wing'd plover wheels Her founding flight, and then directly on
In long excurfion skims the level lawn,
To tempt him from her neft. The wild-duck, hence,
O'er the rough mofs, and o'er the trackless waste
The heath-hen flutters, pious fraud! to lead
The hot pursuing spaniel far aftray.
Be not the Muse afham'd, here to bemoan
Her brothers of the grove, by tyrant man
Inhuman caught, and in the narrow cage
From liberty confin'd, and boundless air.
Dull are the pretty flaves, their plumage dull,
Ragged, and all its brightening luftre loft;
Nor is that sprightly wildness in their notes,
Which, clear and vigorous, warbles from the beech.
O then, ye friends of love and love-taught fong,
Spare the soft tribes, this barbarous art forbear;
If on your bofom innocence can win,
Mufic engage, or piety persuade.
But let not chief the nightingale lament
Her ruin'd care, too delicately fram'd
To brook the harsh confinement of the cage.
Oft when, returning with her loaded bill,
Th' aftonish'd mother finds a vacant neft,
By the hard hand of unrelenting clowns
Robb'd, to the ground the vain provision falls;
Her pinions ruffle, and, low-drooping, scarce
Can bear the mourner to the poplar shade;
Where, all abandon'd to despair, the fings
Her forrows through the night; and, on the bough,
Sole-fitting, ftill at every dying fall
Takes up again her lamentable strain
Of winding woe; till, wide around, the woods
Sigh to her song, and with her wail refound.
But now the feather'd youth their former bounds,
Ardent, difdain; and, weighing oft their wings,
Demand the free poffeffion of the fky:
This one glad office more, and then dissolves
Parental love at once, now needlefs grown.
Unlavish Wisdom never works in vain.
'Tis on fome evening, funny, grateful, mild,
When nought but balm is breathing through the woods,
With yellow luftre bright, that the new tribes
Visit the spacious heavens, and look abroad
On nature's common, far as they can fee,
Or wing, their range and pasture. O'er the boughs
Dancing about, ftill at the giddy verge
Their refolution fails; their pinions still,
In loose libration stretch'd, to trust the void
Trembling refufe: till down before them fly
The parent-guides, and chide, exhort, command,
Or push them off. The furging air receives
Its plumy burden; and their felf-taught wings
Winnow the waving element. On ground
Alighted, bolder up again they lead,
Farther and farther on, the lengthening flight;
Till, vanish'd every fear, and every power
Rouz'd into life and action, light in air
Th' acquitted parents fee their foaring race,
And once rejoicing never know them more.
High from the fummit of a craggy cliff,
Hung o'er the deep, fuch as amazing frowns
On utmost Kilda's fhore, whofe lonely race
Refign the setting fun to Indian worlds,
The royal eagle draws his vigorous young,
Strong-pounc'd, and ardent with paternal fire.
* The fartheft of the western islands of Scotland.
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