I have trod this path a hundred times With idle footsteps, crooning rhymes, I know each nest & web-worms tent; The fox-hole which the woodchucks rent Maple & oak, the old "divan," Self-planted twice like the banian; I know not why I came again Unless to learn it ten times ten. To read the sense the woods impart, You must bring the throbbing heart; Love is aye the counterforce, Terror, & Hope, & wild Remorse. Newest knowledge, fiery thought, Or Duty to grand purpose wrought. Wandering yester-morn the brake, I reached the margin of the lake, And oh! the wonder of the power, The deeper secret of the hour! -- Nature, the supplement of Man, His hidden sense interpret can, -- What friend to friend cannot convey Shall the dumb bird instructed say. Passing yonder oak, I heard Sharp accents of my woodland bird, -- I watched the singer with delight, -- But mark what changed my joy to fright, When that bird sang, I gave the theme, -- That wood-bird sang my last night's dream, A brown wren was the Daniel That pierced my trance its drift to tell; It knew my quarrel, how and why, Published it to lake and sky, -- Told every word and syllable In his flippant chirping babble, All my wrath, & all my shames, Nay, Heaven be witness, -- gave the names. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONNET: 9 by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL IN THE FOREST by JOHANNA AMBROSIUS ON THE BACKWARDNESS OF THE SPRING 1771 by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD THREE SONGS OF LOVE (CHINESE FASHION): 2. RIVER SONG by WILLIAM A. BEATTY A DIALOGUE (FOR A BASE AND TWO TREBLES) by JOSEPH BEAUMONT ETHELWALD, FR. METRICAL HISTORY OF ST. CUTHBERT by BEDE |