" The feathery fern, the feathery fern, 



It groweth wild and it groweth free, 

 By the rippling brook and the wimpling burn, 



And the tall and stately forest tree ; 

 Where the merle and the mavis sweetly sing, 

 And the blue-jay makes the woods to ring, 

 And the pheasant flies on whirring wing 

 Beneath a verdurous canopy. 



" The feathery fern, the feathery fern, 

 An emerald sea, it waveth wide, 



And seems to flash, to gleam and burn, 

 Like the ceaseless flow of a golden tide ; 



On bushy slope or in leafy glade, 



Amid the twilight depths of shade, 



By interlacing branches made 



And trunks with lichens glorified." 



