| BENEATH these fruit-tree boughs that shed | |
| Their snow-white blossoms on my head, | |
| With brightest sunshine round me spread | |
| Of Spring's unclouded weather, | |
| In this sequester'd nook how sweet | 5 |
| To sit upon my orchard-seat, | |
| And flowers and birds once more to greet, | |
| My last year's friends together! | |
| |
| One have I mark'd, the happiest guest | |
| In all this covert of the blest:— | 10 |
| Hail to thee, far above the rest | |
| In joy of voice and pinion! | |
| Thou, Linnet! in thy green array | |
| Presiding spirit here to-day | |
| Dost lead the revels of the May; | 15 |
| And this is thy dominion. | |
| |
| While birds, and butterflies, and flowers, | |
| Make all one band of paramours, | |
| Thou, ranging up and down the bowers, | |
| Art sole in thy employment; | 20 |
| A life, a presence like the air, | |
| Scattering thy gladness without care, | |
| Too blest with any one to pair, | |
| Thyself thy own enjoyment. | |
| |
| Amid yon tuft of hazel trees | 25 |
| That twinkle to the gusty breeze, | |
| Behold him perch'd in ecstasies | |
| Yet seeming still to hover;— | |
| There! where the flutter of his wings | |
| Upon his back and body flings | 30 |
| Shadows and sunny glimmerings, | |
| That cover him all over. | |
| |
| My dazzled sight he oft deceives— | |
| A brother of the dancing leaves; | |
| Then flits, and from the cottage-eaves | 35 |
| Pours forth his song in gushes; | |
| As if by that exulting strain | |
| He mock'd and treated with disdain | |
| The voiceless form he chose to feign, | |
| While fluttering in the bushes. | 40 |
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