But restless hurry through the busy air, 660 As thus the patient dam assiduous sits, High on the opponent bank, and ceaseless sings To pick the scanty meal. The appointed time With constant clamour. Oh, what passions then, On the new parents seize! Away they fly The most delicious morsel to their young ; The search begins. Even so a gentle pair, 653 restless hurry] hurry hurry 1728-38. 656 Originally (1728-38)— Ingeniously intent. Oft from the back. Dropped in 1744. 659 a straw] the straw 1728-38. 1728. 670 680 661 As thus] Meantime 676 Seize the new parents' hearts, &c. 1728-38. 680-85 Even so a gentle pair. . Oft] Expanded from the original text (1728-38) By fortune sunk, but formed of generous mould, In long excursion skims the level lawn 690 To tempt him from her nest. The wild-duck, hence, O'er the rough moss, and o'er the trackless waste The heath-hen flutters, pious fraud! to lead The hot pursuing spaniel far astray. Be not the muse ashamed here to bemoan So pitiful and poor A gentle pair on providential Heaven Cast. 700 682 charmed] pierced 1744. 685 infant] clamant 1728-38. 687 toil] pain 1744. 687-94 Nor toil alone The unfeeling schoolboy. These lines, which first appeared in the edition of 1744, are an expansion of the original text (1728-38)— Nor is the courage of the fearful kind, Nor is their cunning less should some rude foot Their woody haunts molest: stealthy aside Into the centre of a neighbouring bush They drop, and whirring thence alarmed deceive The rambling schoolboy. 695 wandering swain] traveller 1728-38. as if hurt 1728-38. 700 pious fraud !] Her brothers of the grove by tyrant man Music engage, or piety persuade. But let not chief the nightingale lament Her ruined care, too delicately framed To brook the harsh confinement of the cage. Oft when, returning with her loaded bill, The astonished mother finds a vacant nest, By the hard hand of unrelenting clowns Robbed, to the ground the vain provision falls; 720 Her pinions ruffle, and, low-drooping, scarce Can bear the mourner to the poplar shade; Where, all abandoned to despair, she sings Her sorrows through 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. But now the feathered youth their former bounds, Ardent, disdain; and, weighing oft their wings, 730 708 sprightly] luscious 1728-38. 38) 709-13 Originally (1728 That warbles from the beech. Oh, then, desist! Forbear, if innocence and music can Win on your hearts, or piety persuade. 725 Sad-sitting 1728-38. 729 But] And 1728-38. 728 Sigh to] Sigh at 1728-38. Demand the free possession of the sky. This one glad office more, and then dissolves 'Tis on some evening, sunny, grateful, mild, When nought but balm is breathing through the woods With yellow lustre bright, that the new tribes Visit the spacious heavens, and look abroad Farther and farther on, the lengthening flight; 750 732 This one] But this 1728-38. for needless grown, 1728-38. 733 now needless grown :] 743 to trust the void] the void abrupt 1728-38. in air] in the void 1728-38. 753 acquitted] exoner'd 1728-38. 752 light 755-65 These lines are an expansion of a vigorous and picturesque passage which remained in the original text till altered in 1744. See Note at the end of the poem. Resign the setting sun to Indian worlds, He drives them from his fort, the towering seat Whose lofty elms and venerable oaks In early Spring his airy city builds, And ceaseless caws amusive; there, well-pleased, 770 I might the various polity survey Of the mixed household-kind. The careful hen Fed and defended by the fearless cock, Whose breast with ardour flames, as on he walks And, arching proud his neck, with oary feet 780 His every-coloured glory to the sun, 766 And should I wander 1728-38. 767 lofty elms oaks] aged oaks. . gloom 1728-38. 768-70 Originally (1728-38)Invite the noisy rook, with pleasure there A single line. 781 forward] onward 1728; guards his osier isle] beats you from the bank 1728-38. 785 radiant] floating 1728-38. |