Swallow, Barn 



Swallows thicken through the air, 

 Curve and drift of plumy brown, 

 Wafting, showering everywhere, 

 Melody's light seed-notes down. 



LUCY LARCOM. 



The thin-winged swallow, skating on the air. 



GIBSON. 



The Swallow 



At play in April skies that spread 

 Their azure depths above my head 

 As onward to the woods I sped, 



I heard the swallow twitter; 

 O skater in the fields of air 

 On steely wings that sweep and dare, 

 To gain these scenes thy only care, 



Nor fear the winds are bitter. 



Ah, well I know thy deep-dyed vest, 

 Thy burnished wing, thy feathered nest, 

 Thy lyric flight at love's behest, 



And all thy ways so airy; 

 Thou art a nursling of the air, 

 No earthly food makes up thy fare 

 But soaring things both frail and rare, 



Fit diet of a fairy. 



JOHN BURROUGHS. 



147 



