BOBOLINK! that in the meadow, | |
| Or beneath the orchard’s shadow, | |
| Keepest up a constant rattle | |
| Joyous as my children’s prattle, | |
| Welcome to the north again! | 5 |
| Welcome to mine ear thy strain, | |
| Welcome to mine eye the sight | |
| Of thy buff, thy black and white! | |
| Brighter plumes may greet the sun | |
| By the banks of Amazon; | 10 |
| Sweeter tones may weave the spell | |
| Of enchanting Philomel; | |
| But the tropic bird would fail, | |
| And the English nightingale, | |
| If we should compare their worth | 15 |
| With thine endless, gushing mirth. | |
| |
| When the ides of May are past, | |
| June and Summer nearing fast, | |
| While from depths of blue above | |
| Comes the mighty breath of love, | 20 |
| Calling out each bud and flower | |
| With resistless, secret power, | |
| Waking hope and fond desire, | |
| Kindling the erotic fire, | |
| Filling youths’ and maidens’ dreams | 25 |
| With mysterious, pleasing themes; | |
| Then, amid the sunlight clear | |
| Floating in the fragrant air, | |
| Thou dost fill each heart with pleasure | |
| By thy glad ecstatic measure. | 30 |
| |
| A single note, so sweet and low, | |
| Like a full heart’s overflow, | |
| Forms the prelude; but the strain | |
| Gives no such tone again, | |
| For the wild and saucy song | 35 |
| Leaps and skips the notes among, | |
| With such quick and sportive play, | |
| Ne’er was madder, merrier lay. | |
| |
| Gayest songster of the Spring! | |
| Thy melodies before me bring | 40 |
| Visions of some dream-built land, | |
| Where, by constant zephyrs fanned, | |
| I might walk the livelong day, | |
| Embosomed in perpetual May. | |
| Nor care nor fear thy bosom knows; | 45 |
| For thee a tempest never blows; | |
| |
| But when our northern Summer’s o’er, | |
| By Delaware’s or Schuylkill’s shore | |
| The wild rice lifts its airy head, | |
| And royal feasts for thee are spread. | 50 |
| And when the Winter threatens there, | |
| Thy tireless wings yet own no fear, | |
| But bear thee to more southern coasts, | |
| Far beyond the reach of frosts. | |
| |
| Bobolink! still may thy gladness | 55 |
| Take from me all taints of sadness; | |
| Fill my soul with trust unshaken | |
| In that Being who has taken | |
| Care for every living thing, | |
| In Summer, Winter, Fall, and Spring. | 60 |
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