Page:The Seasons - Thomson (1791).djvu/82

 Try every winning way inventive love Can dictate, and in courtship to their mates Pour forth their little souls. First, wide around, With distant awe, in airy rings they rove, Endeavouring by a thousand tricks to catch The cunning, conscious, half-averted glance Of their regardless charmer. Should she seem Softening the least approvance to bestow, Their colours burnish, and by hope inspir'd, They brisk advance; then, on a sudden struck, Retire disorder'd; then again approach; In fond rotation spread the spotted wing, And shiver every feather with desire.

leagues agreed, to the deep woods They haste away, all as their fancy leads, Pleasure, or food, or secret safety prompts; That great command may be obey'd, Nor all the sweet sensations they perceive Indulg'd in vain. Some to the holly-hedge Nestling repair, and to the thicket some; Some to the rude protection of the thorn Commit their feeble offspring: the cleft tree Offers its kind concealment to a few, Their food its insects, and its moss their nests. Others apart far in the grassy dale, Or roughening waste, their humble texture weave. But moft in woodland solitudes delight, In unfrequented glooms, or shaggy banks, Steep, and divided by a babbling brook, Whose murmurs soothe them all the live-long day, When by kind duty fix'd. Among the roots Of hazel, pendant o'er the plaintive stream, They frame the first foundation of their domes; Dry