BIRDS AND NATURE. 



ILLUSTRATED BY COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY. 



Vol. XVI. DECEMBER, 1904. No. 5 



STANZAS. 



In a drear-nighted December 



Too happy, happy tree, 



Thy branches ne'er remember 



Their green felicity ; 



The North cannot undo the-m, 



With a sleety whistle through them : 



Nor frozen thawings glue them 



From budding at the prime. 



In a drear-nighted December, 

 Too happy, happy brook, 

 Thy bubblings ne'er remember 

 Apollo's summer look: 

 But with a sweet forgetting, 

 They stay their crystal fretting, 

 Never, never petting 

 About the frozen time. 



Ah! would 'twere so with many 

 A gentle girl and boy! 

 But were there ever any 

 Writhed not at passed joy? 

 To know the change and feel it, 

 When there is none to heal it, 

 Nor numbed sense to steal it, 

 Was never said in rhyme. 



— John Keats. 



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