THE

FORGET ME NOT.

MONTGOMERY.

What is Life.

WHAT is life? 'tis a delicate shell
Thrown up by eternity's flow,
On time's bank of quicksand to dwell,
And a moment its loveliness show.

Gone back to its element grand,

Is the billow that brought it on shore; See, another is washing the strand, And the beautiful shell is no more.

B

The Gentianella.

IN LEAF.

GREEN thou art, obscurely green,
Meanest plant among the mean!

From the dust 1 took my birth;
Thou, too, art a child of earth;
I aspire not to be great;

Scorn not thou my low estate;

Time will come when thou shalt see

Honour crown humility,

Beauty set her seal on me.

IN FLOWER.

Blue thou art, intensely blue,
Flower, whence came thy dazzling hue?

When I open'd first mine eye, Upward glancing to the sky, Straightway from the firmament Was the sapphire brilliance sent. Brighter glory wouldst thou share, Do what I did,-look up there, What I could not,-look with prayer!

Birds.

THE CUCKOO.

Why art thou always welcome, lonely bird?
-The heart grows young again when I am heard;
Nor in my double note the magic lies,

But in the fields, the woods, the streams and skies.

THE SPARROW.

Sparrow, the gun is levell'd, quit that wall.
-Without the will of heaven, I cannot fall.

THE CHAFFINCH.

Stand still a moment!

-Spare your idle words,

I'm the perpetual mobile of birds;

My days are running, rippling, twittering streams, When fast asleep I'm all afloat in dreams.

THE COCK.

Who taught thee, chanticleer, to count the clock ? -Nay, who taught man that lesson but the cock ? Long before wheels and bells had learn'd to chime, I told the steps unseen, unheard, of time.

THE JACK-DAW.

Canst thou remember that unlucky day,
When all thy peacock plumes were pluck'd away?
Remember it? believe me, that I can,

With right good cause, for I was then a man!

And for my folly, by a wise old law,

Stript, whipt, tarr'd, feathered, turn'd into a daw: -Pray, how d'ye like my answer? Caw, caw, caw!

THE BAT.

What shall I call thee,-bird, or beast, or neither?
-Just what you will; I'm rather both than either.
Much like the season when I whirl my flight,
The dusk of evening,-neither day nor night.

ROOKS.

What means that riot in your citadel ?
Be honest, peaceable, like brethren dwell.
-How, while we live so near to man, can life
Be any thing but knavery, noise, and strife?

THE PEACOCK.

Peacock! of idle beauty, why so vain?
-And art thou humble, who hast no proud train?
It is not vanity, but nature's part

To shew, by me, the cunning of her art.

THE PHEASANT.

Pheasant, forsake the country, come to town;
I'll warrant thee a place beneath the crown.
-No; not to roost upon the throne, would I
Renounce the woods, the mountains, and the sky.

THE MAGPIE.

Magpie, and thou hast learn'd by rote to speak Words without meaning through thy uncooth beak. -Words have I learn'd? and without meaning too? No wonder, sir, for I was taught by you.

THE STORK.

Stork, why were human virtues given to thee?
-That human beings might resemble me;
Kind to my offspring, to my partner true,
And duteous to my parents,-what are you?

THE EAGLE.

Art thou the king of birds, proud eagle, say?
-I am; my
talons and my beak bear sway;
A greater king than I, if thou wouldst be,
Govern thy tongue, but let thy thoughts be free.

VULTURES.

Abominable harpies, spare the dead.

-We only clear the field which man has spread; On which should heaven its hottest vengeance rain? You slay the living, we but strip the slain.

THE BIRD OF PARADISE.

The bird of paradise!

-That name I bear,

Though I am nothing but a bird of air:
Thou art a child of earth, and yet to thee,
Lost and recovered paradise is free:

Oh! that such glory were reserved for me!

THE OSTRICH.

Hast thou expell'd the mother from thy breast,
And to the desert's mercies left thy nest?
-Ah! no, the mother in me knows her part;
Yon glorious sun is warmer than my heart;
And when to light he brings my hungry brood,
He spreads for them the wilderness with food.