Some merry Night of Straparole, And here the Poet raised his hand, " THE POET'S TALE. THE BIRDS OF KILLINGWORTH Published in The Atlantic Monthly, December, 1863. Ir was the season, when through all the land The merle and mavis build, and building sing Those lovely lyrics, written by His hand, Whom Saxon Cadmon calls the Blithe-heart King; When on the boughs the purple buds expand, The robin and the bluebird, piping loud, Filled all the blossoming orchards with their glee; The sparrows chirped as if they still were proud Their race in Holy Writ should mentioned be; And hungry crows, assembled in a crowd, Clamored their piteous prayer incessantly, Knowing who hears the ravens cry, and said: "Give us, O Lord, this day, our daily bread!" Across the Sound the birds of passage sailed, Speaking some unknown language strange and sweet Of tropic isle remote, and passing hailed The village with the cheers of all their fleet; Or quarrelling together, laughed and railed Like foreign sailors, landed in the street Of seaport town, and with outlandish noise Of oaths and gibberish frightening girls and boys. Thus came the jocund Spring in Killingworth, Cassandra-like, prognosticating woe; They shook their heads, and doomed with dreadful words To swift destruction the whole race of birds. And a town-meeting was convened straightway The awful scarecrow, with his fluttering shreds; The skeleton that waited at their feast, Then from his house, a temple painted white, Three flights of steps, nor looking left nor right, Down the long street he walked, as one who said, "A town that boasts inhabitants like me Can have no lack of good society! The Parson, too, appeared, a man austere, In Summer on some Adirondac hill; From the Academy, whose belfry crowned Came the Preceptor, gazing idly round, Now at the clouds, and now at the green grass, And all absorbed in reveries profound Of fair Almira in the upper class, Who was, as in a sonnet he had said, And next the Deacon issued from his door, In his voluminous neck-cloth, white as snow; A suit of sable bombazine he wore ; His form was ponderous, and his step was slow; There never was so wise a man before; He seemed the incarnate " Well, I told you so!" And to perpetuate his great renown There was a street named after him in town. These came together in the new town-hall, His air impressive and his reasoning sound; Ill fared it with the birds, both great and small; Hardly a friend in all that crowd they found, But enemies enough, who every one Charged them with all the crimes beneath the sun. When they had ended, from his place apart Then thought of fair Almira, and took heart To speak out what was in him, clear and strong, Alike regardless of their smile or frown, And quite determined not to be laughed down. “Plato, anticipating the Reviewers, From his Republic banished without pity The birds, who make sweet music for us all “The thrush that carols at the dawn of day Jargoning like a foreigner at his food; "You slay them all! and wherefore? for the gain Of a scant handful more or less of wheat, Or rye, or barley, or some other grain, Scratched up at random by industrious feet, Searching for worm or weevil after rain! Or a few cherries, that are not so sweet As are the songs these uninvited guests Sing at their feast with comfortable breasts. "Do you ne'er think what wondrous beings these? Do you ne'er think who made them, and who taught The dialect they speak, where melodies Alone are the interpreters of thought? Whose household words are songs in many keys, Sweeter than instrument of man e'er caught! Whose habitations in the tree-tops even Are half-way houses on the road to heaven! Think, every morning when the sun peeps through The dim, leaf-latticed windows of the grove, |