An 1806 Sonnet

Sweetly chanting carols wild,

Easy strains and quavers mild,

Clearly warbling from her throat,

Robin pour'd the tuneful note,

Perch'd upon a flexible spray,

Singing her short life away.

 

Fine the morn and fresh the air,

Sol arose resplendent, fair;

Cloudless was the azure sky,

Mantled in its bluest die;

Sportive scenes aerial,

Rul'd the eye imperial,

Floating on the balmy gale,

Hov'ring o'er the flow'ry vale.

 

Robin hail'd the cheering day,

Blushing with the charm of May;

Shone the sun-beam on her breast,

Which her rosy plumage drest;

Seem'd delighted with the view —

And delightful was she too;

Careless of the rushing breeze,

Blowing 'mong the rustling trees,

Waving to and fro the spray,

Whence arose the honied lay —

Robin fat contented, free,

Full of life and merry glee.

 

On a flow'r-bed where the dew

Spangled on the vi'let blue;

By a bank reclined I,

Where a riv'let girgled by,

Heard the mild and quiv'ring trill,

With the murm'rings of the rill;

With the little minstrel charm'd,

While the muse by bosom warm'd,

I beheld her transient bliss,

Sueing for her happiness,

Free from discontent and care

Never shedding sorrow's tear;

She no mis'ry ever knows,

Virtue in her bosom glows;

Her's a life free from pain,

Naught to loose, nor naught to gain.

 

Man has something to be gain'd,

Which by Virtue is obtain'd.

 

Then, thou Red-breast, trust a maid,

In thee I can confide;

In a life which sins degrade,

Be thou a moral guide.

 

Since my life depends on chance —

The past I can't retrieve —

By thy native innocence,

O teach me how to live.

Sonnet. August 2, 1806. Concord Gazette 1(4): 3. For the Concord Gazette.