
TuE feathery Fern! the feathery Fern ! 
It groweth wild, and it groweth free, 
By the rippling brook, and the wimpling burn, 
And the tall and stately forest tree ; 
Where the merle and the mavis sweetly sing, 
And the blue jay makes the woods to ring, 
And the pheasant flies on whirring wing, 
Beneath a verdurous canopy. 
The feathery Fern ! the feathery Fern ! 
An emerald sea, it waveth wide, 
And seems to flash, and gleam, and burn, 
Like the ceaseless flow of a golden tide : 
On bushy slope, or in leafy glade, 
Amid the twilight depth of shade, 
By interlacing branches made, 
And trunks with lichens glorified. 

