126 NATURE AND THE POETS. 



little oven-bird, walking round and round you in the 

 woods, or suddenly soaring above the tree-tops, and 

 uttering its wild lyrical strain ; or, farther south, the 

 whistling red-bird, with his crest and military bearing, 

 these and many others should be full of sugges- 

 tion and inspiration to our poets. It is only lately 

 that the robin's song has been put into poetry. Noth- 

 ing could be happier than this rendering of it by a 

 nameless singer in " A Masque of Poets " : 

 " When the willows gleam along the brooks, 

 And the grass grows green in sunny nooks, 

 In the sunshine and the rain 

 I hear the robin in the lane 

 Singing 'Cheerily 

 Cheer up, cheer up ; 

 Cheerily, cheerily, 

 Cheer up.' 



But the snow is still 

 Along the walls and on the hill. 

 The days are cold, the nights forlorn, 

 For one is here and one is gone. 

 ' Tut, tut. Cheerily, 

 Cheer up, cheer up; 

 Cheerily, cheerily, 

 Cheer up.' 



'* When spring hopes seem to wane, 

 I hear the joyful strain 

 A song at night, a song at mom, 

 A lesson deep to me is borne, 

 Hearing, ' Cheerily, 

 Cheer up, cheer up ; 

 Cheerily, cheerily, 

 Cheer up.' " 



The poetic interpretation of nature, which has 



