The feathers, dropped from moorhen's wing
Which to the water's surface cling,
Are steadfast, and as heavy seem
As stones beneath them in the stream.
Noon swoons beneath the heat it made,
And flowers e'en within the shade;
Until the sun slopes in the west,
Like weary traveler, glad to rest
On pillowed clouds of many hues,
Then Nature's voice its joy renews.
And chequered field and grassy plain
Hum with their summer songs again,
A requiem to the day's decline,
Whose setting sunbeams coolly shine;
As welcome to day's feeble powers
As falling dews to thirsty flowers.
HAVE closed my books and hidden my slate,
And thrown my satchel across the gate.
My school is out for a season of rest,
And now for the schoolroom I love the best.
My schoolroom lies on the meadow wide,
Where under the clover the sunbeams hide,
Where the long vines cling to the mossy bars,
And the daisies twinkle like fallen stars;
Where clusters of buttercups gild the scene,
Like showers of gold-dust thrown over the green,
And the winds' flying footsteps are traced, as they
By the dance of the sorrel and dip of the grass.
My lessons are written in clouds and trees,
And no one whispers, except the breeze,
Who sometimes blows, from a secret place,
A stray, sweet blossom against my face.
My schoolbell rings in the rippling stream
Which hides itself, like a schoolboy's dream,
Under the shadow and out of sight,
But laughing still for its own delight.
My schoolmates there are the birds and bees,
And the saucy squirrel, more dull than these,
For he only learns, in all the weeks,
How many chestnuts will fill his cheeks.
My teacher is patient, and never yet
A lesson of hers did I once forget,
For wonderful lore do her lips impart,
And all her lessons are learned by heart.
O, come! O, come! or we shall be late,
And autumn will fasten the golden gate.
Of all the schoolrooms in east or west
The school of Nature I love the best.
Beside the margin of a lisping stream
And watch the clouds in white flotillas pass,
While Nature slumbers in a fragrant dream;
To list the robin's song so soft and sweet,
Like ripples of an Eden interlude,
Float down cool woodland avenues replete
With benisons of drowsy solitude;
To note the fingers of the lazy breeze
Play symphonies upon the languid ferns
And on the bearded wheat wake mimic seas.
With bliss the idle dreamer dizzy turns,
And thinks, as kine-bells tinkle on his ear,
Keats' melodious spirit wanders near.
ROUND this lovely valley rise The purple hills of Paradise. O, softly on yon banks of haze Her rosy face the Summer lays! Becalmed along the azure sky, The argosies of Cloudland lie, Whose shores, with many a shining rift, Far off their pearl-white peaks uplift.
Through all the long midsummer day
The meadow-sides are sweet with hay.
I seek the coolest sheltered seat,
Just where the field and forest meet,-
Where grow the pine-trees tall and bland,
The ancient oaks austere and grand,
And fringy roots and pebbles fret
The ripples of the rivulet.
I watch the mowers, as they go
Through the tall grass, a white-sleeved row.
With even stroke their scythes they swing,
In tune their merry whetstones ring.
Behind, the nimble youngsters run,
And toss the thick swaths in the sun.
The cattle graze, while, warm and still,
Slopes the broad pasture, basks the hill,
And bright, where summer breezes break,
The green wheat crinkles like a lake.
The butterfly and humble-bee
Come to the pleasant woods with me;
Quickly before me runs the quail,
Her chickens skulk behind the rail;
High up the lone wood-pigeon sits,
And the woodpecker pecks and flits;
Sweet woodland music sinks and swells,
The brooklet rings its tinkling bells,
The swarming insects drone and hum,
The partridge beats his throbbing drum;
The squirrel leaps among the boughs,
And chatters in his leafy house;
The oriole flashes by; and, look!
Into the mirror of the brook,
Where the vain bluebird trims his coat,
Two tiny feathers fall and float.
As silently, as tenderly,
The down of peace descends on me.
O, this is peace! I have no need
Of friend to talk, of book to read:
A dear Companion here abides;
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