XXI. THE CONTRAST. THE PARROT AND THE WREN. [THE Parrot belonged to Mrs. Luff while living at Fox-Ghyll. The Wren was one that haunted for many years the summer-house between the two terraces at Rydal Mount.] I. WITHIN her gilded cage confined, Like beads of glossy jet her eyes; Her plumy mantle's living hues And, sooth to say, an apter Mate But, exiled from Australian bowers, She trills her song with tutored powers, No more of pity for regrets Arch, volatile, a sportive bird II. THIS MOSS-LINED shed, green, soft, and dry, Strange places, coverts unendeared, In which this Child of Spring was reared, To the bleak winds she sometimes gives Though she appear not, and be sought in vain. Say, Dora! tell me, by yon placid moon, XXII. THE DANISH BOY. A FRAGMENT. [WRITTEN in Germany. It was entirely a fancy; but intended as a prelude to a ballad-poem never written.] I. BETWEEN two sister moorland rills There is a spot that seems to lie And in this smooth and open dell II. In clouds above, the lark is heard, No beast, no bird hath here his home; The Danish Boy walks here alone: III. A Spirit of noon-day is he; Yet seems a form of flesh and blood; Nor piping shepherd shall he be, A regal vest of fur he wears, It fears not rain, nor wind, nor dew; IV. A harp is from his shoulder slung; Of flocks upon the neighbouring hill V. There sits he; in his face you spy The lovely Danish Boy is blest That seem like songs of love, XXIII. 1799. SONG FOR THE WANDERING JEW. THOUGH the torrents from their fountains Clouds that love through air to hasten, What, if through the frozen centre |