Page:Pocahontas, and Other Poems.djvu/95

 FAREWELL TO A RURAL RESIDENCE. 79

And the squirrel from the boughs

His broken uuts let fall, And the merry, merry little birds

Sang at his festival.

Yon old forsaken nests

Returning spring shall cheer, And thence the unfledg'd robin send

His greeting wild and clear ; And from yon clustering vine,

That wreathes the casement round, The humming-birds' unresting wing

Send forth a whirring sound ;

And where alternate springs

The lilac's purple spire Fast by its snowy sister's side ;

Or where, with wing of fire, The kingly oricle glancing went

Amid the foliage rare, Shall many a group of children tread,

But mine will not be there.

Fain would I know what forms

The mastery here shall keep, What mother in yon nursery fair

Rock her young babes to sleep ;

�� �