Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE ROBIN, AN ELEGY, by JOSEPH GILES


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE ROBIN, AN ELEGY, by                    
First Line: O come, thou melancholy muse
Last Line: "and many a pleasing thought inspire."
Subject(s): Melancholy; Robins; Dejection


"O come, thou melancholy Muse,
With solemn dirge assist my strain,
While shades descend, and weeping dews
In sorrows wrap the rural plain.

Her mantle grave cool evening spreads,
The sun cuts short his joyful race;
The jocund hills, the laughing meads,
Put on a sickening, dying face.

Stern winter brings his gloomy train,
Each pleasing landskip fades from view;
In solemn state he shuts the scene,
To flowery fields we bid adieu!

Quite stript of every beauty, see
How soon fair Nature's honours fade!
The flowers are fled, each spreading tree
No more affords a grateful shade.

Their naked branches now behold,
Bare winds pierce through with murmuring sound;
Chilled by the Northern breezes cold,
Their leafy honours strew the ground.

So man, who treads life's active stage,
Like leaf or blossom fades away;
In tender youth, or riper age,
Drops thus into his native clay!

Alas! and can we choose but moan,
To see all Nature's charms expire!
Fair-blooming Spring, gay Summer gone,
And Autumn hastening to retire!

But see the tender Redbreast comes,
Forsaking now the leafless grove,
Hops o'er my threshold, pecks my crumbs,
And courts my hospitable love.

Then soothes me with his plaintive tale
As Sol withdraws his friendly ray;
Cheering, as evening shades prevail,
The soft remains of closing day.

O welcome to my homely board!
There unmolested shalt thou stand;
Were it with choicest dainties stored,
For thee I'd ope a liberal hand,

Since thou of all the warbling throng,
Who now in silence far retire,
Remain'st to soothe me with a song,
And many a pleasing thought inspire."





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