| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | I. To a Robin | | By James Dixon (1814–1873) |
| | | SWEET 1 Bird! that, hidden by the dark green leaves, | |
| Didst pour thy pleasant song at break of day, | |
| Making glad music round my flower-wreathed eaves, | |
| Why has thy gentle warbling died away? | |
| Come not the zephyrs from the sweet southwest | 5 |
| As freshly to thy leaf-embosomed nest? | |
| Less fragrant are the flowers of summer’s prime? | |
| Or pin’st thou for thy far-off southern clime? | |
| Or is it that thy noisy young have flown, | |
| Leaving their green home in the o’ershadowing tree, | 10 |
| That thus thou mournest desolate and lone, | |
| Where once thy song burst forth so loud and free? | |
| Alas! that summer’s perfumed airs should bring | |
| Sorrow to one like thee, so light of heart and wing! | |
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