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and the third song is filled with a dolorous lament for her absence, with which all Nature—wrapt in gloom and storm seems to sympathize.

The fourth song is an invocation to the frost, which has "bitten into the heart of earth," but is welcome to our lover as heralding the return of spring and of his mistress.

In the fifth song is that beautiful comparison with the wrens, which gives its second title to the poem. The lover calls his mistress the Queen of the Wrens, and he wishes to be the King of the Queen of the Wrens.

In the sixth song the lover, after dwelling upon the surpassing excellence of his mistress, debates within himself whether he shall let her know of his love, and make his declaration personally or by letter, and at last decides to adopt the latter course. He thus apostrophizes his missive, as if it were a carrier-dove:

There is a jubilant dancing refrain to this song,