150 SELECT POETRY

What, if the shining beam of noon
Should in its fountain stay ;

Because its feeble light alone
Cannot create a day?

Does not each rain-drop help to form
The cool refreshing shower ?

And every ray of light, to warm
And beautify the flower?

 

BIRDS IN SUMMER.

How pleasant the life of a bird must be,
Flitting about in each leafy tree ;

In the leafy trees, so broad and tall,

Like a green and beautiful palace-hall,
With its airy chambers, light and boon,!
That open to sun, and stars, and moon,
That open unto the bright blue sky,

And the frolicsome winds as they wander by

They have left their nests in the forest bough ;
Those homes of delight they need not now;
And the young and the old they wander out,
And traverse their green world round about:
And hark! at the top of this leafy hall,
How one to the other they lovingly call ;

* Come up, come up!” they seem to say,

“‘ Where the topmost twigs in the breezes sway!”

1 Boon—gay, cheerful.