68 
NATURE NOTES 
The mocking bird left off to mock ; 
Huge camels knelt as if 
In deprecation ; 
The kind hart’s tears were falling ; 
Chattered the wistful stork : 
Dove-voices with a dying fall 
Cooed desolation.” 
In a poem entitled “ Brother Bruin,” the story is told of a 
dancing bear who had an unkind master. The bear dies, and 
the cruel master goes to the workhouse : — 
“ There he droned on — a grim old sinner 
Toothless and grumbling for his dinner, 
Unpitied quite, uncared for much 
(The ratepayer not favouring such), 
Hungry and gaunt, with time to spare ; 
Perhaps the hungry, gaunt old Bear 
Danced back, a haunting memory. 
Indeed I hope so ; for you see 
If once the hard old heart relented 
The hard old man may have repented.” 
Some very charming lines are to be found in a poem entitled 
“ To What Purpose is this Waste ? ” from “ New Poems ” : — 
“ And other eyes than ours 
Here made to look on flowers, 
Eyes of small birds, and insects small : 
The deep sun-blushing rose 
Round which the prickles close 
Opens her bosom to them all. 
The tiniest living thing 
That soars on feathered wing, 
Or crawls among the long grass out of sight, 
Has just as good a right 
To its appointed portion of delight 
As any king.” 
One of Christina Rossetti’s most perfect short poems is “ A 
Green Cornfield,” which being short may be quoted : — 
“ The earth was green, the sky was blue ; 
I saw and heard one sunny morn 
A skylark hang between the two, 
A singing speck above the corn. 
“ A stage below in glad accord, 
White butterflies danced on the wing, 
And still the singing skylark soared 
And silent sank and soared to sing. 
“The cornfield stretched a tender green 
To right and left beside my walks ; 
I knew he had a nest unseen 
Somewhere among the million stalks. 
“ And as I paused to hear his song 
While swilt the sunny moments slid, 
Perhaps his mate sat listening long, 
And listened longer than I did.” 
“Child’s Talk in April” — talk that has charmed many a 
staid adult as the wren chatters on — is too well known to need 
quotation at length 
