6 BIEDS AND POETS 



of a broken string on his lyre, and "filled the ca- 

 dence due." 



" For while six chords beneath my fingers cried, 

 He with his tuneful voice the seventh supplied ; 

 The midday songster of the mountain set 

 His pastoral ditty to my canzonet ; 

 And when he sang, his modulated throat 

 Accorded with the lifeless string I smote." 



While we are trying to introduce the lark in this 

 country, why not try this Pindaric grasshopper also ? 

 It is to the literary poets and to the minstrels of 

 a softer age that we must look for special mention 

 of the song-birds and for poetical rhapsodies upon 

 them. The nightingale is the most general favor- 

 ite, and nearly all the more noted English poets 

 have sung her praises. To the melancholy poet she 

 is melancholy, and to the cheerful she is cheerful. 

 Shakespeare in one of his sonnets speaks of her 

 song as mournful, while Martial calls her the "most 

 garrulous " of birds. Milton sang : — 



"Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise of folly. 

 Most musical, most melancholy, 

 Thee, chantress, oft the woods among 

 I woo, to hear thy evening song." 



To Wordsworth she told another story : — 



" O nightingale ! thou surely art 

 A creature of ebullient heart ; 

 These notes of thine, — they pierce and pierce, — 

 Tumultuous harmony and fierce ! 

 Thou sing'st as if the god of wine 

 Had helped thee to a valentine ; 

 A song in mockery and despite 

 Of shades, and dews, and silent night. 

 And steady bliss, and all the loves 

 Now sleeping in these peaceful groves." 



