ASSUREDLY the barley-birds Were speaking in the alder-trees The list of unimpressive words They use for their simplicities. Rob hurried back, on hearing this, So fast, he seemed to skim the ground, For Nance had promised him a kiss For every barley-bird he found. @3Stay there, stay there, you barley-birds, Till Nancy comes to count you!@1 He glimpsed her by the pillar'd rock That shows the summit, where a breeze Began to toss the playmate frock Of billowy muslin to her knees. She trembled when, across the brook Below the heather-bearing crest, A runner leaped and boldly took The hillside slanting from her breast. @3Stay there, stay there, you barley-birds, Till Nancy comes to count you!@1 They went the way that Robin signed, Toward the clump of alder-trees, Unwitting how there walked behind A Boy no taller than their knees, Who bit his rose-red lips, to force His giggles back, while in his eyes Gleamed sparks enough to fire the gorse That camped in gold on Stillford Rise. @3Stay there, stay there, you barley-birds, Till Nancy comes to count you!@1 Rob shouted. From the branchy place A little flock of siskins flew To find another home apace, Their tell-tale feathering clear in view! The freckled godling rarely trips To such a jig of honied words As there he tuned while Nancy's lips Paid one by one for barley-birds. @3But Robin, Robin, how unfair To count each bird twice over!@1 | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...STONEWALL JACKSON; MORTALLY WOUNDED AT CHANCELLORSVILLE by HERMAN MELVILLE THE WIDOW; SAPPHICS by ROBERT SOUTHEY THE MOTHER'S LAMENT by ST. CLAIR ADAMS THREE SONNETS WRITTEN IN MID-CHANNEL: 2 by ALFRED AUSTIN THE LAST MAN: DREAM OF DYING by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES THE WANDERER by MATHILDE BLIND NATALIA'S RESURRECTION: 20 by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT TO A YOUNG FRIEND LEARNING TO PLAY THE FLUTE by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD |