For blither fields and braver bowers The little bird, in Spring, Quits its old tree and wintry hold, With wanton mates to sing; And yet a while that wintry home To branch and twig may cling ; But wayward blast, or truant boy, May rend it soon away, And scatter to the heedless winds The toil of many a day ''" And where, when Winter comes, shall then The bird its poor head lay I The moss, the down, the twisted grass, The slender wands that bound The dear warm nest, are parted now, Or scattered far around ''" Belike the woodman's axe hath felled The old tree to the ground ! And now keen Winter's wreathing snows O'er frozen Nature lie ''" The sun forgets to warm the earth, Forgets to light the sky ; I fear me lest the wandering bird May, houseless, shivering, die! Forgive me, Helen ''" thou art free To keep, or quit, the nest I built for thee, and sheltered in The foliage of my breast, And fenced so well none other might Be harbour'd there as guest. Flee if thou wilt ''" if other love Thy fickle heart enfold, Thou'rt free to rove where fancy waves Her wand of fairy gold ''" But Helen, ere thou canst return, This bosom will be cold! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE PHANTOM KISS by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR A SHROPSHIRE LAD: 27 by ALFRED EDWARD HOUSMAN THE WASHERS OF THE SHROUD; OCTOBER, 1861 by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL ODES: BOOK 2: ODE 3. TO THE CUCKOO by MARK AKENSIDE POLYHYMNIA: DEDICATION TO THE COUNTESS OF LINDSEY by WILLIAM BASSE PRESENTIMENT by AMBROSE BIERCE |