The Thrushs Nest

Within a thick and spreading hawthorn

That overhung a molehill large and round,

I heard from morn to morn a merry

Sing hymns to sunrise, and I drank the

With joy; and often, an intruding guest,

I watched her secret toil from day to day - How true she warped the moss to form a nest,

And modelled it within with wood and clay;

And by and by, like heath-bells gilt with dew,

There lay her shining eggs, as bright as flowers,

Ink-spotted over shells of greeny blue;

And there I witnessed, in the sunny hours,

A brood of nature's minstrels chirp and fly,

Glad as the sunshine and the laughing sky.