Nice-finger'd art must emulate in vain,
But cawing rooks, and kites that swim sublime
In still repeated circles, screaming loud;
The jay, the pie, and e'en the boding owl
That hails the rising moon, have charms for me.
COWPER: Task.

Whom call we gay? that honour has been long
The boast of mere pretenders to the name:
The innocent are gay,-the lark is gay
That dries his feathers saturate with dew
Beneath the rosy cloud, while yet the beams
Of day-spring overshoot his humble nest.

COLERIDGE.

The winds were hush'd, no leaf so small At all was seen to stir;

COWLEY.

COWLEY.

COWLEY.

Ten thousand warblers cheer the day, and one The live-long night: nor these alone whose notes

As callow birds, Whose mother's kill'd in seeking of the prey, Cry in their nest, and think her long away, And at each leaf that flies, each blast of wind, Gape for the food which they must never find. DRYDEN.

Fowls, by winter forced, forsake the floods, And wing their hasty flight to happier lands. DRYDEN.

All hail, he cry'd, thy country's grace and love; Once first of men below, now first of birds above.

DRYDEN.

The painted birds, companions of the spring, Hopping from spray to spray were heard. DRYDEN.

He therefore makes all birds of every sect Free of his farm, with promise to respect Their several kinds alike, and equally protect. DRYDEN.

His gracious edict the same franchise yields To all the wild increase of woods and fields.

DRYDEN.

The painted lizard and the birds of prey, Foes of the frugal kind, be far away.

DRYDEN.

From each tree The feather'd people look down to peep on me. DRYDEN.

A bird new made, about the banks she plies, Not far from shore, and short excursions tries. DRYDEN.

Her leafy arms with such extent were spread,
That hosts of birds, that wing the liquid air,
Perch'd in the boughs, had nightly lodging there.
DRYDEN.

At first she flutters, but at length she springs
To smoother flight, and shoots upon her wings.
DRYDEN.

The broken air loud whistling as she flies,
She stops and listens, and shoots forth again,
And guides her pinions by her young ones' cries.

DRYDEN.

New herds of beasts he sends the plains to share;
New colonies of birds to people air;
And to the oozy beds the finny fish repair.

DRYDEN.

But both obnoxious to their former fate.

DRYDEN.