THE FREE'D BIRD. RETURN, return, my Bird! I have dress'd thy cage with flowers, 'Tis lovely as a violet bank In the heart of forest bowers. "I am free, I am free, I return no more! Through the rolling clouds I can soar on high, "The hills lie beneath me, spread far and clear, With their glowing heath-flowers and bounding deer; I see the waves flash on the sunny shore- Alas, alas, my Bird! Why seek'st thou to be free? Wer't thou not blest in thy little bower, When thy song breathed nought but glee? "Did my song of the summer breathe nought but glee? "From a dream of the forest that music sprang, Was it with thee thus, my Bird? Yet thine eye flash'd clear and bright! I have seen the glance of sudden joy In its quick and dewy light. "It flash'd with the fire of a tameless race, With the soul of the wild wood, my native place! With the spirit that panted through heaven to soar— Woo me not back-I return no more! "My home is high, amidst rocking trees, Farewell, farewell, then, Bird! I have call'd on spirits gone, And it may be they joy'd like thee to part, "If they were captives, and pined like me, F "Call them not back when the chain is riven, When the way of the pinion is all through heaven ! Farewell!-With my song through the clouds I soar, I pierce the blue skies-I am Earth's no more!" TO THE MOUNTAIN WINDS. How divine The liberty, for frail, for mortal man, Among the many there. WORDSWORTH. MOUNTAIN winds! oh! whither do ye call me? Wherefore thus my weary spirit woo? |