252 IN BIRD LAND. 
his verse, like the skilful weaver who runs a line of 
exquisite tint through his weft. Hereis an instance, 
found in the poem called “ Threnodia,’? — 
“‘T loved to see the infant soul 
Peep timidly from out its nest, 
His lips, the while, 
Fluttering with half-fledged words, 
Or hushing to a smile 
That more than words expressed, 
When his glad mother on him stole 
And snatched him to her breast! 
O, thoughts were brooding in those eyes, 
That would have soared like strong-winged birds 
Far, far into the skies, 
Gladding the earth with song 
And gushing harmonies.” 
Here is another fine simile, — 
“As if a lark should suddenly drop dead 
While the blue air yet trembled with its song, - 
So snapped at once that music’s golden thread.” 
In the following stanzas on “The Falcon” — 
used as a metaphor for Truth — there is a captivat- 
ing multiplicity of figures, — 
“T know a falcon swift and peerless 
As e’er was cradled in the pine; 
No bird had ever eye so fearless, 
Or wing so strong as this of mine. 
“ The winds not better love to pilot 
A cloud with molten gold o’errun, 
Than him, a little burning islet, 
A star above the coming sun. 
