Volume I Part 36 (2/2)
The birds of all the forest Have dear and pleasant cheer, But yet I hold the rarest The farmyard Chanticleer.
Red c.o.c.k or black c.o.c.k, Gold c.o.c.k or white, The flower of all the feathered flock, He whistles back the light!
Katherine Tynan Hinkson [1861-1931]
”WHAT DOES LITTLE BIRDIE SAY?”
From ”Sea Dreams”
What does little birdie say In her nest at peep of day?
Let me fly, says little birdie, Mother, let me fly away.
Birdie, rest a little longer, Till the little wings are stronger.
So she rests a little longer, Then she flies away.
What does little baby say, In her bed at peep of day?
Baby says, like little birdie, Let me rise and fly away.
Baby, sleep a little longer, Till the little limbs are stronger, If she sleeps a little longer, Baby too shall fly away.
Alfred Tennyson [1809-1892]
NURSE'S SONG
When the voices of children are heard on the green And laughing is heard on the hill, My heart is at rest within my breast, And everything else is still.
”Then come home, my children, the sun is gone down, And the dews of the night arise; Come, come, leave off play, and let us away Till the morning appears in the skies.”
”No, no, let us play, for it is yet day, And we cannot go to sleep; Besides in the sky the little birds fly, And the hills are all covered with sheep.”
”Well, well, go and play till the light fades away, And then go home to bed.”
The little ones leaped and shouted and laughed; And all the hills echoed.
William Blake [1757-1827]
JACK FROST
The door was shut, as doors should be, Before you went to bed last night; Yet Jack Frost has got in, you see, And left your window silver white.
He must have waited till you slept; And not a single word he spoke, But pencilled o'er the panes and crept Away again before you woke.
And now you cannot see the hills Nor fields that stretch beyond the lane; But there are fairer things than these His fingers traced on every pane.
Rocks and castles towering high; Hills and dales, and streams and fields; And knights in armor riding by, With nodding plumes and s.h.i.+ning s.h.i.+elds.
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