BLUEBIED 395 



They seemed to come from the distant south, 

 Just over the Walden wood, 

 And they skimmed it along with open mouth 

 Close by where the bellows stood. 



Warbling they swept round the distant cliff, 

 And they warbled it over the lea, 

 And over the blacksmith's shop in a jiff 

 Did they come warbling to me. 



They came and sat on the box's top 

 Without looking into the hole, 

 And only from this side to that did they hop, 

 As 't were a common well-pole. 



Methinks I had never seen them before, 

 Nor indeed had they seen me, 

 Till I chanced to stand by our back door, 

 And they came to the poplar tree. 



In course of time they built their nest 

 And reared a happy brood, 

 And every morn they piped their best 

 As they flew away to the wood. 



Thus wore the summer hours away 

 To the bluebirds and to me, 

 And every hour was a summer's day, 

 So pleasantly lived we. 



They were a world within themselves, 

 And I a world in me, 



