Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/901

 ROBERT BROWNING

Aught but weeds and waving grasses

To view the river as it passes,

Save here and there a scanty patch

Of primroses too faint to catch

A weary bee. ... And scarce it pushes

Its gentle way through strangling rushes

Where the glossy kingfisher

Flutters when noon-heats are near,

Glad the shelving banks to shun,

Red and steaming in the sun,

Where the shrew-mouse with pale throat

Burrows, and the speckled stoat;

Where the quick sandpipers flit

In and out the marl and grit

That seems to breed them, brown as they:

Naught disturbs its quiet way,

Save some lazy stork that springs,

Trailing it with legs and wings,

Whom the shy fox from the hill

Rouses, creep he ne'er so still.

��728 Pippa's Song

THE year 's at the spring, And day J s at the morn; Morning J s at seven ; The hill-side 's dcw-pearl'd; The lark 's on the wing; * The snail 's on the thorn ; God 's in His heaven All 's right with the world'

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