| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| The Rookery |
| | | Charles Tennyson Turner (1808–79) |
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| METHOUGHT, as I beheld the rookery pass | |
| Homeward at dusk upon the rising wind, | |
| How every heart in that close-flying mass | |
| Was well befriended by the Almighty mind: | |
| He marks each sable wing that soars or drops, | 5 |
| He sees them forth at morning to their fare, | |
| He sets them floating on His evening air, | |
| He sends them home to rest on the tree-tops: | |
| And when through umber’d leaves the night-winds pour, | |
| With lusty impulse rocking all the grove, | 10 |
| The stress is measur’d by an eye of love, | |
| No root is burst, though all the branches roar; | |
| And, in the morning, cheerly as before, | |
| The dark clan talks, the social instincts move. | |
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