To a Robin
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2022
Summary
Mild melodist! whose artless note,
At foggy eve, at chilly morn,
From nature's quiet haunts remote,
Here seems a harmony forlorn;
Fain would I give thee, for thy song,
A carol simple as thy own;
For thou, sweet bird! awak’st a throng
Of thoughts which rise for thee alone.
It is not that thy lay is fraught
With music, like the sky-lark's strain,
Or nightingale’s, so sweetly caught
By listening ear, in midnight's reign;
Nor has thy note that deeper sound,
Of which my heart has felt the thrall,
When I have heard, from groves profound,
The lone wood-pigeon's frequent call.
But these, each one, and all, give vent
To song, where song is wont to flow;
Thou, thou art sweetly eloquent,
With nothing near to wake that glow
Of music, in the haunts of men,
Which, amid buildings cluster’d round,
From time to time arrests my pen,
And makes me listen to its sound.
Oh! hearts that feel, and eyes that see
All as it truly is, can find,
Ev’n in an object mean as thee,
Food for the meditative mind:
But thus it is,—we close our hearts,
Our ears, our eyes, to things which, view’d
With the keen sense that truth imparts,
Might fill our souls with gratitude.
And this absurd and frigid pride,
By which our nature is disgrac’d,
Philosophy has dignified
With the proud name of manly taste.
It seems a proof of childishness
Thy song to love, thy praise to speak,
And he who should its power confess
Must be the weakest of the weak.
Well! be it so: —if life have taught
To me one truth distinctly clear,
’Tis this, that unto wakeful thought
The humblest source of joy is dear.
The lowliest object that can wake
Our better feelings by its power,
The minstrel for his theme may take,
In contemplation's musing hour.
Canst thou not waken such, sweet bird?
Yes; while I listen to thy lay,
Thought's hidden stream again seems stirr’d
By breezes, which were wont to play
Over its current's dimpled course,
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- Information
- Selected Poems of Bernard Barton, the 'Quaker Poet' , pp. 110 - 113Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2020