Alabama, 19 15. 47 



ROBERT BURNS 



WHAT bird, in beauty, flight or song, 

 Can with the Bard compare, 

 Who sang as sweet, and soar'd as strong, 

 As ever child of air? 



His plume, his note, his form, could Burns 



For whim or pleasure change; 

 He was not one, but all by turns, 



With transmigration strange. 



The Blackbird, oracle of spring, 



When flow'd his moral lay; 

 The Swallow wheeling on the wing, 



Capriciously at play. 



The Humming-bird, from bloom to bloom, 



Inhaling heavenly balm ; 

 The Raven, in the tempest's gloom; 



The Halcyon, in the calm. 



In "auld Kirk Alloway," the Owl, 



At witching time of night; 

 By "bonnie Doon," the earliest Fowl 



That carroll'd to the light. 



He was the Wren amidst the grove, 



When in his homely vein; 

 At Brannockburn the Bird of Jove, 



With thunder in his train. 



The Woodlark, in his mournful hours; 



The Goldfinch, in his mirth ; 

 The Thrush, a spendthrift of his powers, 



Enrapturing heaven and earth. 



