Love, blessed Love, is everywhere The spirit of my song: 'Mid grove, and by the calm fireside, That coo again! t is not to chide, XXVII. A WREN'S NEST. AMONG the dwellings framed by birds No door the tenement requires, And seldom needs a labored roof; Yet is it to the fiercest sun Impervious, and storm-proof. So warm, so beautiful withal, In perfect fitness for its aim, That to the Kind by special grace Their instinct surely came. And when for their abodes they seek An opportune recess, 1880 The hermit has no finer eye These find, 'mid ivied abbey-walls, There to the brooding bird her mate Or in sequestered lanes they build, But still, where general choice is good, This, one of those small builders proved In a green covert, where, from out The forehead of a pollard oak, The leafy antlers sprout; For she who planned the mossy lodge, Mistrusting her evasive skill, Had to a Primrose looked for aid Her wishes to fulfil. High on the trunk's projecting brow, The treasure proudly did I show To some whose minds without disdain Can turn to little things; but once Looked up for it in vain: "T is gone, a ruthless spoiler's prey, Who heeds not beauty, love, or song! 'Tis gone! (so seemed it,) and we grieved, Indignant at the wrong. Just three days after, passing by In clearer light, the moss-built cell The Primrose for a veil had spread And thus, for purposes benign, A simple flower deceives. Concealed from friends who might disturb Thy quiet with no ill intent Secure from evil eyes and hands Rest, Mother-bird! and when thy young Think how ye prospered, thou and thine, Housed near the growing Primrose-tuft, 1833. XXVIII. LOVE-LIES-BLEEDING. You call it, "Love-lies-bleeding," so you may, So drooped Adonis bathed in sanguine dew Rent, weeping over him, her golden hair, Did press this semblance of unpitied smart Into the service of his constant heart, His own dejection, downcast Flower! could share With thine, and gave the mournful name which thou wilt ever bear. XXIX. COMPANION TO THE FOREGOING. NEVER enlivened with the liveliest ray |