In some lone cott 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 scorn: Exalting love,
By the great FATHER OF THE SPRING inspir'd,

680

685

Gives instant courage to the fearful race,

And to the simple, art. With stealthy wing,

Should some rude foot their woody haunts molest,
Amid a neighbouring bush they silent drop,

And whirring thence, as if alarm'd, deceive

690

Th' unfeeling school-boy. Hence, around the head

Of wandering swain, the white-wing'd plover wheels Her sounding flight; and then directly on

In long excursion skims the level lawn,

To tempt him from her nest. The wild-duck, hence,

O'er the rough moss, and o'er the trackless waste 696 The heath-hen flutters, pious fraud! to lead

The hot-pursuing spaniel far astray.

BE not the Muse asham'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 slaves, their plumage dull,
Ragged, and all its brightening lustre lost;

700

Nor is that sprightly wildness in their notes,

Which, clear and vigorous, warbles from the beech.

705

Oh then, ye friends of love and love-taught song,

Spare the soft tribes, this barbarous art forbear;
If on your bosom innocence can win,

Music engage, or piety persuade.

BUT let not chief the nightingale lament

710

Her ruin'd care, too delicately fram'd

To brook the harsh confinement of the cage.

Oft when, returning with her loaded bill,

Th' astonish'd mother finds a vacant nest,
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;

715

Where, all abandon'd to despair, she sings

720

Her sorrows thro' the night; and, on the bough,
Sole-sitting, still 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 resound.

725

But now the feather'd youth their former bounds, Ardent, disdain; and weighing oft their wings, Demand the free possession of the sky:

This one glad office more, and then dissolves
Parental love at once, now needless grown.

730

Unlavish WISDOM never works in vain.

'Tis on some evening, sunny, grateful, mild,

When nought but balm is breathing thro' the woods,

With yellow lustre bright, that the new tribes
Visit the spacious heavens, and look abroad

On Nature's common, far as they can see,

735

Or wing, their range and pasture. O'er the boughs
Dancing about, still at the giddy verge

Their resolution fails; their pinions still,
In loose libration stretch'd, to trust the void
Trembling refuse: Till down before them fly
The parent-guides, and chide, exhort, command,
Or push them off. The surging air receives

740

Its plumy burden; and their self-taught wings

Winnow the waving element. On ground

745

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 see their soaring race,
And once rejoicing never know them more.
HIGH from the summit of a craggy cliff,
Hung o'er the deep, such as amazing frowns
On utmost KILDA's shore; whose lonely race

750

Resign the setting sun to Indian worlds;

755

The royal eagle draws his vigorous young,

Strong pounc'd, and ardent with paternal fire;
Now fit to raise a kingdom of their own,
He drives them from his fort, the towering seat,
For ages, of his empire; which, in peace,

760

Unstain'd he holds, while many a league to sea
He wings his course, and preys in distant isles.
SHOULD I my steps turn to the rural seat,
Whose lofty elms, and venerable oaks,

Invite the rook; who high amid the boughs,

In early Spring, his airy city builds,

And ceaseless caws amusive; there, well-pleas'd,

765

I might the various polity survey

Of the mix'd houshold kind. The careful hen

Calls all her chirping family around,

Fed and defended by the fearless cock

Whose breast with ardour flames, as on he walks
Graceful, and crows defiance. In the pond,
The finely-checker'd duck before her train,
Rows garrulous. The stately-sailing swan
Gives out his snowy plumage to the gale;
And, arching proud his neck, with oary feet
Bears forward fierce, and guards his osier-isle,
Protective of his young. The turkey nigh,

770

775

Loud-threatning, reddens; while the peacock spreads His every-colour'd glory to the sun,

781

And swims in radiant majesty along.

O'er the whole homely scene, the cooing dove

Flies thick in amorous chace; and wanton rolls

The glancing eye, and turns the changeful neck. 785 WHILE thus the gentle tenants of the shade

Indulge their purer loves, the rougher world

Of brutes, below, rush furious into flame,

And fierce desire. Thro' all his lusty veins

The bull, deep-scorch'd, the raging passion feels. 790 Of pasture sick, and negligent of food,

Scarce seen, he wades among the yellow broom,

While o'er his ample sides the rambling sprays

Luxuriant shoot; or thro' the mazy wood

Dejected wanders; nor th' inticing bud

795

Crops, tho' it presses on his careless sense.

And oft, in jealous mad'ning fancy wrapt,
He seeks the fight; and, idly-butting feigns
His rival gor'd in ev'ry knotty trunk.

Him should he meet, the bellowing war begins:

800

Their eyes flash fury; to the hollow'd earth,

Whence the sand flies, they mutter bloody deeds,

And groaning deep, th' impetuous battle mix :
While the fair heifer, balmy-breathing, near,

806

Stands kindling up their rage. The trembling steed,
With this hot impulse seiz'd in every nerve,
Nor hears the rein, nor heeds the sounding thong:
Blows are not felt; but tossing high his head,

And by the well-known joy to distant plains
Attracted strong, all wild he bursts away;

810

O'er rocks, and woods, and craggy mountains flies;

And, neighing, on the aërial summit takes

Th' exciting gale; then, steep descending, cleaves
The headlong torrents foaming down the hills,