THE PIGEONc 



115 



A place where content in a cottage might dwell; — 

 A place that a hermit might choose for his cell ; — 

 Where, afar from all strife and all tumult and pride, 

 The nymph Tranquil Pleasure delights to reside ; — 

 Where, in meadow or grove or the woodlands among, 

 The Birds may be heard in melodious song. 



The Time, when the Spring, in his splendid array, 

 Commanded cold Winter to hasten away;-— 

 When the woods and the groves, decked in garments 



of green, 

 With laughing delight and with pleasure were seen. 

 The cowslip with fragrance the meadow perfum'd, 

 And the primrose the dark bank with yellow illum'd ; 

 The cuckoo flower peep'd from the pasture's soft bed, 

 And the yellow ranunculus* lifted her head. 

 The violet drooping seemed ready to die; 

 To part with such sweetness, ah ! who will not sigh ? 

 The Thrush's, the Blackbird's, and Nightin- 

 gale's, song 

 Were heard now and then the dark copses among; 

 Whilst a crowd of soft melodists, hid in the grove, 

 Seem'd anxious their musical powers to prove: 

 In a hedge sang theBLACK-CAP, what time in the yew, 

 The Wood-pigeon cried "Two, two, Taffy, take two." 

 Other Pigeoks ( 3 ) e'er active, and oft on the wing, 

 Proclaim'd, by their cooing, the presence of spring. 



( 3 ). Order, Passeres, (Linn.) Pigeon, Dove, &c. 

 The genus Columba, (Linn.) to which the Common Pi- 

 geon, or Columba Domestica belongs, is a very extensive one, 



* Ranunculus acris — Buttercup or Golugup. 



