SIDE I.IGHTS ON BIRDS 



Then comes a glimpse of the fox : — 



' ' The lean red bolt of his body tore 



Like a ripple of wind running swift on grass, 



Like a shadow on wheat when a cloud blows past." 



Now he dives down a sheer decHvity hoping 

 unavaiHngly to find an unstopped earth : — 



" Like the April snake whipping back to sheath. 

 Like a gannet's hurtle on fish beneath." 



Happily Reynard finds sanctuary at last, and 

 weary horses turn homewards as the wintry 

 evening falls. The single robin's note, the birds 

 wheeling in the sky as they seek their roosting 

 place, and the lights suddenly appearing in the 

 distant village, are truly observed and beau- 

 tifully expressed : — 



' ' The robin sang from a puffed red breast. 



The fox lay quiet and took his rest 



A wren on a tree-stump carolled clear, 



Then the starlings wheeled in a sudden sheer. 



The rooks came home to the twiggy hive. 



In the elm-tree tops that the winds do drive. 



Then the noise of the rooks fell slowly still. 



And the lights came out on the Clench Brook Hill, 



Then a pheasant cocked, then an owl began 



With the cry that curdles the blood of man." 



April would appear to be one of the poet's 

 favourite months : 



" April appeared, the green earth's impulse came, 

 Pushing the singing sap, until each bud. 

 Trembled with delicate life as soft as flame." 



' ' It was an April morning brisk with wind 

 And overhead the first-come swallow darted." 



We remember how Browning signalized the 

 " month of daffodils." 



' ' When the chaflSnch sings on the orchard bough. 

 In England, now." 



Perhaps Masefield's line may come to be equally 

 well remembered : — 



" There was all April in the blackbird's cry." 



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