A WREN'S NEST. AMONG the dwellings framed by birds No door the tenement requires, Impervious, and storm-proof. So warm, so beautiful withal, And when for their abodes they seek. An opportune recess, The Hermit has no finer eye For sadowy quietness. These find, 'mid ivied abbey walls, There to the brooding bird her mate Or in sequestered lanes they build, But still, where general choice is good, This, one of those small builders proved In a green covert, where, from out The forehead of a pollard oak, The leafy antlers sprout; For She who planned the mossy lodge Had to a Primrose looked for aid High on the trunk's projecting brow, The treasure proudly did I show To some whose minds without disdain Can turn to little things; but once Looked up for it in vain : 'Tis gone a ruthless spoiler's prey, Just three days after, passing by The Primrose for a veil had spread Concealed from friends who might disturb Thy quiet with no ill intent, Secure from evil eyes and hands On barbarous plunder bent, Rest, Mother-bird! and when thy young Think how ye prospered, thou and thine, Housed near the growing Primrose tuft NUTTING. 1833. It seems a day (I speak of one from many singled out One of those heavenly days that cannot die; When, in the eagerness of boyish hope, , I left our cottage threshold, sallying forth With a huge wallet o'er my shoulders slung, A nutting-crook in hand; and turned my steps Toward some far-distant wood, a figure quaint, Tricked out in proud disguise of cast-off weeds Which for that service had been husbanded, Motley accoutrement, of power to smile truth, in More ragged than need was! O'er pathless rocks, Through beds of matted fern and tangled thickets, Forcing my way, I came to one dear nook Drooped with its withered leaves, ungracious sign Of devastation; but the hazels rose Tall and erect, with milk-white clusters hung, A virgin scene!-A little while I stood, Breathing with such suppression of the heart As joy delights in; and, with wise restraint Voluptuous, fearless of a rival, eyed The banquet ;-or beneath the trees I sate Among the flowers, and with the flowers I played; A temper known to those, who, after long |