92 
THE LANGUAGE OF BIEDS. 
It wafted nearer yet, and then she knew 
That what before she but surmis'd was true : 
A Corpse it was ; but whose it was, unknown ; 
Yet mov^d, howe'er, she made the case her own, 
Took the bad omen of a shipwrecked man 
As for a stranger, wept, and thus began : 
" Poor wretch, on stormy seas to lose thy life, 
Unhappy thou, but more thy widow'd wife 
At this she paus'd ; for now the flowing tide 
Had brought the body nearer to the side. 
The more she looks, the more her fears increase. 
At nearer sight, and she's herself the less : 
Now driven ashore, and at her feet it lies ; — 
She knows too much, in knowing whom she sees — 
Her Husband's corpse — at this she loudly shrieks, 
" ^Tis he ! 'tis he !" she cries, and tears her cheeks, 
Her hair, and vest ; and, stooping to the sands. 
About his neck she cast her trembling hands. 
" And is it thus, O dearer than my life, 
Thus, thus return'st thou to thy longing wife !" 
She said, and to the neighbouring mole she strode, 
(Rais'd there to break th' incursions of the flood ;) 
Headlong from hence to plunge herself she springs, 
But shoots along, supported on her wings ; 
