06 November 2013

An 1806 Sonnet

Sweetly chanting carols wild,
Easy strains and quavers mild,
Clearly warbling from her throat,
Robin pour'd the tuneful note,
Perch'd upon a flexible spray,
Singing her short life away.
 
Fine the morn and fresh the air,
Sol arose resplendent, fair;
Cloudless was the azure sky,
Mantled in its bluest die;
Sportive scenes aerial,
Rul'd the eye imperial,
Floating on the balmy gale,
Hov'ring o'er the flow'ry vale.
 
Robin hail'd the cheering day,
Blushing with the charm of May;
Shone the sun-beam on her breast,
Which her rosy plumage drest;
Seem'd delighted with the view —
And delightful was she too;
Careless of the rushing breeze,
Blowing 'mong the rustling trees,
Waving to and fro the spray,
Whence arose the honied lay —
Robin fat contented, free,
Full of life and merry glee.
 
On a flow'r-bed where the dew
Spangled on the vi'let blue;
By a bank reclined I,
Where a riv'let girgled by,
Heard the mild and quiv'ring trill,
With the murm'rings of the rill;
With the little minstrel charm'd,
While the muse by bosom warm'd,
I beheld her transient bliss,
Sueing for her happiness,
Free from discontent and care
Never shedding sorrow's tear;
She no mis'ry ever knows,
Virtue in her bosom glows;
Her's a life free from pain,
Naught to loose, nor naught to gain.
 
Man has something to be gain'd,
Which by Virtue is obtain'd.
 
Then, thou Red-breast, trust a maid,
In thee I can confide;
In a life which sins degrade,
Be thou a moral guide.
 
Since my life depends on chance —
The past I can't retrieve —
By thy native innocence,
O teach me how to live.
Sonnet. August 2, 1806. Concord Gazette 1(4): 3. For the Concord Gazette.