Blithe of heart, from week to week
Thou dost play at hide-and-seek ;
While the patient primrose sits
Like a beggar in the cold,
Thou, a flower of wiser wits,
Slip'st into thy sheltering hold;
Liveliest of the vernal train
When ye all are out again.

Drawn by what peculiar spell,
By what charm of sight or smell,
Does the dim-eyed, curious Bee,
Laboring for her waxen cells,
Fondly settle upon thee,

Prized above all buds and bells
Opening daily at thy side,
By the season multiplied?

Thou art not beyond the moon,
But a thing "beneath our shoon":
Let the bold Discoverer thrid
In his bark the polar sea;
Rear who will a pyramid;
Praise it is enough for me,
If there be but three or four
Who will love my little Flower.

:

XIII.

THE SEVEN SISTERS;

OR, THE SOLITUDE OF BINNORIE.

I.

SEVEN Daughters had Lord Archibald,
All children of one mother:

You could not say in one short day
What love they bore each other.
A garland, of seven lilies, wrought!
Seven Sisters that together dwell;
But he, bold Knight as ever fought,
Their Father, took of them no thought,
He loved the wars so well.

Sing, mournfully, O, mournfully,

The solitude of Binnorie!

II.

Fresh blows the wind, a western wind,

And from the shores of Erin,

Across the wave, a Rover brave

To Binnorie is steering:

Right onward to the Scottish strand

The gallant ship is borne;

The warriors leap upon the land,

And hark! the Leader of the band

Hath blown his bugle-horn.

Sing, mournfully, O, mournfully,

The solitude of Binnorie!

III.

Beside a grotto of their own,

With boughs above them closing,

The Seven are laid, and in the shade
They lie like fawns reposing.

But now, upstarting with affright,
At noise of man and steed,
Away they fly to left, to right:—
Of your fair household, Father-Knight,
Methinks you take small heed!
Sing, mournfully, O, mournfully,
The solitude of Binnorie !

IV.

Away the seven fair Campbells fly,

And, over hill and hollow,

With menace proud, and insult loud,

The youthful Rovers follow.

Cried they, "Your Father loves to roam :

Enough for him to find

The empty house when he comes home

For us your yellow ringlets comb,

For us be fair and kind!"

Sing, mournfully, O, mournfully,

The solitude of Binnorie!

V.

Some close behind, some side by side,
Like clouds in stormy weather;

They run, and cry, "Nay, let us die,

And let us die together."

A lake was near; the shore was steep;
There never foot had been ;

They ran, and with a desperate leap
Together plunged into the deep,
Nor ever more were seen.

Sing, mournfully, O, mournfully,
The solitude of Binnorie!

VI.

The stream that flows out of the lake,
As through the glen it rambles,
Repeats a moan o'er moss and stone,
For those seven lovely Campbells.
Seven little Islands, green and bare,
Have risen from out the deep:
The fishers say, those sisters fair
By faeries all are buried there,
And there together sleep.
Sing, mournfully, O, mournfully,
The solitude of Binnorie!

XIV.

WHO fancied what a pretty sight
This Rock would be if edged around
With living snowdrops? circlet bright!
How glorious to this orchard-ground!

1804

Who loved the little Rock, and set

Upon its head this coronet?

Was it the humor of a child?

Or rather of some gentle maid,

Whose brows, the day that she was styled
The shepherd-queen, were thus arrayed?
Of man mature, or matron sage,
Or old man toying with his age?

I asked,

't was whispered: The device

To each and all might well belong;

It is the Spirit of Paradise

That prompts such work, a Spirit strong,
That gives to all the selfsame bent

Where life is wise and innocent.

1803.

XV.

THE REDBREAST CHASING THE BUTTERFLY,

ART thou the bird whom Man loves best,
The pious bird with the scarlet breast,
Our little English Robin;

The bird that comes about our doors
When Autumn winds are sobbing?
Art thou the Peter of Norway Boors?