BIKDS AND POETS 21 



poem on the bobolink that I have yet seen. It is 

 much more in the mood and spirit of the actual song 

 than Bryant's poem: — 



THE O'LINCOLN FAMILY. 



A flock of merry singing-birds were sporting in the grove ; 

 Some were warbling cheerily, and some were making love : 

 There were Bobolincon, Wadolincon, Winterseeble, Conquedle, — 

 A livelier set was never led by tabor, pipe, or fiddle, — 

 Crying, " Phew, shew, Wadolincon, see, see, Bobolincon, 

 Down among the tickletops, hiding in the buttercups t , 

 I know the saucy chap, I see his shining cap 

 Bobbing in the clover there — see, see, see I " 



Up flies Bobolincon, perching on an apple-tree, 



Startled by his rival's song, quickened by his raillery. 



Soon he spies the rogue afloat, curveting in the air. 



And merrily he turns about, and warns him to beware I 



'* 'T is you that would a- wooing go, down among the rushes I 



But wait a week, till flowers are cheery, — wait a week, and, ere 



you man-y, 

 Be sure of a house wherein to tarry ! 

 Wadolink, Whiskodink, Tom Denny, wait, wait, wait ! " 



Every one 's a funny fellow; every one 's a little mellow; 

 Follow, follow, follow, follow, o'er the hill and in the hollow ! 

 Merrily, merrily, there they hie ; now they rise and now they fly ; 

 They cross and turn, and in and out, and down in the middle, 



and wheel about, — 

 With a " Phew, shew, Wadolincon I listen to me, Bobolincon ! — 

 Happy 's the wooing that 's speedily doing, that 's speedily doing, 

 That 's merry and over with the bloom of the clover ! 

 Bobolincon, Wadolincon, Winterseeble, follow, follow me ! " 



Many persons, I presume, have admired Words- 

 worth's poem on the cuckoo, without recognizing its 

 truthfulness, or how thoroughly, in the main, the 

 description applies to our own species. If the poem 

 had been written in New England or New York, it 

 could not have suited our case better ; — 



